Summary of White Shroud
“White Shroud” is a novel about a Lithuanian poet, Antanas Garšva, working as an elevator operator in New York in the 1950s, struggling to make ends meet. Through a stream of consciousness narrative, the novel describes his childhood and youth in Lithuania before and during the Second World War.
Reasons to read White Shroud
“White Shroud” is largely based on the writer’s own experiences, spanning his childhood and youth in Lithuania, his time in European refugee camps, and his work in a New York hotel. The novel offers insights into life in Lithuania in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as the challenges of adapting to immigrant life in New York. “White shroud” is the only novel by Antanas Škėma and is widely regarded as one of the seminal works of modernist Lithuanian fiction.
Setting: Kaunas (Lithuania) & New York (USA)
Original title: Balta Drobulė
Year of publication: 1958
Nr of pages: 212
