(1950–2002) was a writer, playwright, journalist and the author of Vilniaus pokeris (translated as Vilnius Poker) and several other novels and collections of short stories. His work is characterized by a mix of fantasy, eroticism, philosophical ponderings on the human condition, and psychological insight. Saulius Tomas Kondrotas (b. 1953) is a philosophical writer and a master of short stories. His style and the abstraction of the world in his work resemble that of Jorge Luis Borges. Kondrotas defected to West Germany in 1986. In his most famous novel Žalčio žvilgsnis (The Serpent's Gaze, 1981) he explores the problem of evil and destruction which unnoticeably penetrates the family and generations. The novel has been translated into 15 languages. Jurgis Kunčinas (1947–2002), Ričardas Gavelis (1950–2002), and Jurga Ivanauskaitė (1961–2007) wrote novels exploring the Lithuanian condition during the late 20th century. 21st-century literature Alvydas Šlepikas (b. 1966) was a writer, a poet and a playwright. His novel Mano vardas – Marytė (In the Shadow of Wolves, 2012) became the most read novel of 2012 in Lithuania and has gone through six reprints. The English translation of the book was the Book of the Month by the Times newspaper in the UK in July 2019. It is one of the most translated Lithuanian novels - it was translated into English, German, Polish, Latvian, Estonian, Ukrainian, and the Dutch. Rūta Šepetys (b. 1967) is a Lithuanian-American writer of historical fiction. As an author, she is a #1 New York Times bestseller, an international bestseller and winner of the Carnegie Medal. Her first novel, Between Shades of Gray (2011), about the Genocide of Lithuanian people after the Soviet occupation in 1941, was critically acclaimed and translated into over 30 different languages. Kristina Sabaliauskaitė (b. 1974) debuted with her 4-volume saga of Lithuanian nobility life in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Silva Rerum (2008, 2011, 2014, 2016). It became a bestseller in Lithuania and was translated into Polish and Latvian. Latvian readers voted for its inclusion in a list of 100 of Latvia's Favourite Books of All Times. In Poland, it received exceptional reviews. Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė (b. 1976) is a writer and a playwright. Her most notable works are the play Liučė čiuožia (Liučė Skates, 2003) and her debut novel Kvėpavimas į marmurą (Breathing into Marble, 2006), which won the EU Prize for Literature in 2009 and has been translated into English. Rimantas Kmita (b. 1977)