Cover 4

Forest of the Gods

1957 • 410 pages

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Average rating4

15

Painful yet sublime. How Sruoga was able to maintain a gently ribbing tone after his experiences, I will never understand and will hope to carry with me as an example.

Since this is a book you've probably never heard of: Balys Sruoga, prominent Lithuanian intellectual, documents his two years in a Nazi concentration camp. His voice is unique: a sort of tenderly naïve irony, neither accusatory nor hateful, that somehow makes the horrors ever so real while also providing a sort of buffer; allowing the reader to continue. It's an effective technique.

October 22, 2017