Online Book Club Event February 9
Did you know that there is a European Book Club in Ottawa which discusses works by various European authors? February is dedicated to authors from Lithuania or of Lithuanian descent. On Wednesday, February 9th, at 6 PM (EST) the Embassy of Lithuania to Canada will host a Zoom meeting with Antanas Šileika to discuss his novel Underground. This is the story of a troubled romance between Lukas and Elena, two members of the underground Lithuanian resistance movement in the mid-1940s. Those wishing to participate may register for the meeting here: forms.gle. A link to join the discussion will be shared with registrants a few days prior to the event.
Canadian author Antanas Šileika was born and raised in Toronto. He writes in English about Lithuanian culture and history, and his novels Woman in Bronze, Buying on Time, Underground, The Barefoot Bingo Caller, and Provisionally Yours, have been translated into Lithuanian for his growing number of readers in Lithuania.
A graduate of English literature at the University of Toronto, Šileika began his literary career working on the literary journal Voices in Paris, then returned to Canada where he was editor of Descant and Director of the Humber College School of Writers. He became a known figure in the Canadian literary media with his many reviews and essays, and began writing novels early in his career, first publishing the quasi-apocalyptic Dinner at the End of the World in 1994, and then Buying on Time, an excellent collection of stories about life in an immigrant Lithuanian family. The latter was nominated for the Stephen Leacock Humour Award in Canada and Best Book of the Year in Lithuania.
In Woman in Bronze (2010) his storytelling skills took readers to the depths of the Lithuanian countyside at the turn of the 20th century and the hardships encountered by a sculptor, Tomas Stumbra, who was forced to leave his country and make his way in the world.
Underground (2011) is a historical novel, Iisted in the Globe and Mail’s 100 most popular books of the year, important for its insights into the reality of the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and the Lithuanian resistance.
Turning to the spy genre, Šileika continues his portrayal of Lithuania, in Provisionally Yours, during its first independence period. With both fact-based and imaginative writing, he transports readers to a time known only to those who grew up in Lithuania.
The Barefoot Bingo Caller is an autobiographical collection of memories and musings about Šileika’s youth and adolescence in a Lithuanian family and community, as well as on issues of identity, family and creativity. It was voted book of the year in Lithuania as soon as the translation was published in 2018.
Antanas Šileika has been a long-standing activist for Lithuanian independence, and has received several Lithuanian national awards. Currently he is serving on the World Lithuanian Parliamentary Commission and attended the second conference of World Lithuanian Writers in the Diaspora.
Adapted from an article by Sigina Katkauskaitė
