The fourth volume of Kristina Sabaliauskaitė’s historical saga Silva Rerum is published in Poland. The author, who presented the book to the Polish audience, says that relations between the two countries have become much closer her first book was translated into Polish.
The works of composer Gediminas Gelgotas and Polish violinist Janusz Wawrowski, who plays Poland’s only Stradivarius violin, prefaced the launch of the Polish edition of Sabaliauskaitė’s historical novel at Warsaw’s Lazienski Palace.
The book concludes the tetralogy, known in Poland as The Great Vilnius Saga. The author notes that relations between Lithuania and Poland are different now than they were when she presented the first volume back in 2015.
“Eight years ago, when my book was published in Polish, every time I spoke to journalists I had to answer 10-15 questions about the deteriorating relations between Lithuania and Poland. Today I had a round of interviews and everybody says that the relations between the two countries have improved a lot and we know each other’s culture better,” says Sabaliauskaitė.
Polish critics call this historical novel a cultural link between the two nations. Silva Rerum tells the saga of the noble Narwojsz family, touching on the political, economic and cultural life of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 17th-18th centuries.
First published in Lithuania in 2008, it became a huge bestseller.
The royal Lazienski Palace in Warsaw is one of the settings in Silva Rerum IV.
According to Sabaliauskaitė, the Polish reader is different from the Lithuanian one. They read historical novels more deeply, have more historical studies in Poland, and have more knowledge about the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
“In Lithuania, they said that I brought back that era of the Commonwealth, which was new to many. It was not new to the Polish reader. As a result, they were able to appreciate the nuances more deeply,” says Sabaliauskaitė.
Polish book reviewer Michal Nog says, however, that the history of the two nations told in the books was largely new to Poles as well. He says that the earlier volumes of the saga, which were very popular in Poland, not only made the Poles throw a new glance at their common history with Lithuania, but also encouraged Polish tourism in Lithuania.
“For many Poles, it is these books that encourage them to come to Lithuania. To see Vilnius, the churches, the Old Town, the streets, the places they read about. Also the villages and castles where the book is set,” says Nog.
Sabaliauskaitė has been awarded a special prize last year for promoting cooperation between Lithuania and Poland.
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