Books by Birute Putrius

In 1902 Lithuania, a group of rebels armed with books triumphs against the mighty Russian Empire.Part folktale, part thriller, THE LAST BOOK SMUGGLER tells the story of Ada and her grandfather Viktoras, an old book smuggler tired of his forty-year battle to keep his language alive despite the attempts of the Russian Empire to destroy it. Into their world steps Jonas, a young man in love with Ada and ready to join the underground book smugglers. But there is a traitor in their midst who must stop them or lose everything.Based on the authors grandfather, who was a book smuggler, the novel deftly captures the politics and dangers of the times while bringing to life an engaging and quirky family, with an element of the supernatural.

Spanning forty years and two continents, Lost Birds weaves a tale of Irene Matas and her friends, who arrive as children in Chicago after the Second World War and begin to puzzle out what it means to be American. These interconnected stories follow the residents on Talman Street who fled the Soviet takeover of their country. While the parents, sick with nostalgia and grief for their lost homeland, cling to their old ways, their conflicted children are torn between allegiance to their parents and the bright appeal of America. As Irene and her restless friends come of age in the sixties, they begin to grow beyond their close but insular neighborhood, but still feel drawn to their past.When after many years, the impossible happensthe Iron Curtain finally fallssome return to visit relatives only to find their country ravaged by the Soviets. Irene returns to find something she never expected.