TRAITORS IN VILNIUS

FORRÆDERNE I LITAUEN – TRAITORS IN VILNIUS

By Susanne Staun

SENIOR AGENT IN the State Secret Service, Tomas Minkus, grew up under Russian occupation and has just returned to service after three weeks in an induced coma due to Novichok poisoning. He is far from being in top shape. As a result, he is given a temporary job of showing a young FBI agent, Polish-American Adam Bosko, around Lithuania with the purpose of giving him an introduction to the country and thus enabling him to infiltrate the Polish Minority Party, which is at the centre of the simmering conflict.

TOMAS IS ALSO desperately searching for his wife, Ana, who disappeared without a trace the evening he was poisoned. He believes the Russians have taken her. The police are sure that Ana poisoned him and then joined the rebels. This makes no sense, Tomas claims, but Kamilė Katilienė, the head of the Secret Service’s local branch in Vilnius, tells him that he has to get used to the fact that the world around them is growing increasingly senseless.

TRAITORS IN VILNIUS follows the Lithuanian Secret Service in the three days leading up to the (fictional) uprising. Lithuania has both Russian and Polish minorities that have long been allied against the Lithuanian state, advocating for Russian and autocratic values. In the novel’s present time, in 2022, they are joined by the far-right and far-left, who, during the Corona epidemic, found common ground in their opposition to the state, EU, USA, NATO, and globalisation in general.