"Vilnius Poker" by Ričardas Gavelis (1950–2002) is a striking example of Lithuanian postmodernism. The novel was published in 1989 and has not only secured its place in history but continues to be reissued and translated. It has inspired a play and an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Vilnius.

The Russian translation, approved by Ričardas Gavelis, is being published for the first time.

The wanderings of four voices through narrow streets, heavy memories, twilight, and suspicions, in search of truth and freedom. Maimed madness dances in the grim Vilnius of the Brezhnev era.

"Vilnius Poker" is a sharp and distinctive book about the capital of Lithuania in the late Soviet times, a ruthless deconstruction of the Vilnius myth, written in a satirical yet simultaneously tragic tone. The play on postmodernist techniques in Ričardas Gavelis's novel evolves into a surreal phantasmagoria.

Tomas Venclova