Vilnius Poker by Ricardas Gavelis: The Reception of a Soviet Novel in the North American Market

In 1989, Vilniaus Pokeris by Ričardas Gavelis was first published in Lithuanian. It marked the transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet Lithuanian literature, both because its publication coincided with (or rather, was only possible because of) the fall of the Soviet Union, and because its contents and literary features were so bold and innovative in the context of the contemporary Lithuanian literature. In 2009, the novel, already firmly established at home, was translated into English and published in the USA. The paper discusses how the reception of the American readers differed from the reception at home, especially focusing on issues that depend on knowledge and experience of the late Soviet context.