In the Shadow of Wolves

Written by Alvydas Šlepikas

Narrated by Kathleen Gati

As the Russians advance into East Prussia, women and children are forced out of their homes to make way for the victorious troops.

Their fight for survival is only just beginning...

Facing critical food shortages and the onset of a bitterly cold winter, some of the older children, the 'wolf children' secretly cross the border into Lithuania, begging the local farmers for work or food they can take back to their starving families.

Cinematic and elegantly written, Alvydas Šlepikas's debut novel, based on real-life events, is both meticulously researched and stunningly powerful. It won numerous awards on publication and took Lithuania by storm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Translator: Romas Kinka
• Release date: Nov 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781799751182

Alvydas Šlepikas

Alvydas Šlepikas is one of the most multitalented contemporary Lithuanian writers – he is a poet, prose writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and director. He has edited the Spring Poetry Festival anthologies and published two poetry collections. He has also edited the Lithuanian cultural weekly Literatūra ir menas, and currently oversees the fiction section of this journal. In the Shadow of Wolves, which was named Book of the Year in Lithuania in 2012, is his first novel.

Reviews for In the Shadow of Wolves

[mae · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is what great books can do: you live with every single character . You feel their plight sorrow and hope all the while learning an important lesson about a part of European history which we can only pray to never experience again. Let us all do whatever we can that Ukrainian people do not enter this Russian abyss.

[Gisela Galan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A part of history everybody should know and that should be part of school curriculum.

[piperup · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Based on true events I had never heard of or learned about, this book opened my eyes to the strength of survival that women and children had during WWII. I'd love to see this book made into a movie. Although some reviewers have complained the writing is too sparse, I found it in line with the frame of mind of the characters and the bleak setting.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a gut-wrenching piece of historical fiction. As WWII ended, German families were thrown from their homes by Russians. Many of the families were subjected to brutality and starvation. Apparently, many children made their way over the border into Lithuania to find food for themselves and their families. These children were called the "wolf children" because they lived in the forests and came out to beg or steal food. However, Šlepikas makes it clear that the war had turned many, many people into wolfish predators. The reader follows the experiences of two particular families, specifically the children. Their fight to survive is epic. Although deeply painful to read, I learned of the "wolf children" and was once again reminded of the primal drive to survive in this well-written book.

[hubblegal-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Though the Second World War is over, the Russian soldiers are taking over East Prussia. They are forcing the citizens out of their homes. Many of those citizens have nowhere to go. The lucky ones are living in the sheds on the property they formerly owned. There is little to no food and freezing cold. Some of the Russian soldiers are raping the young women and girls. Desperate for food, the mothers are sending their young children through the forest to Lithuania in the hopes that they can beg for food there and bring some back or even find some work in exchange for food. It’s a dangerous trip that these young children are taking, with some faring better than others.The subject matter of this book is a very difficult one to read. It’s a short book but it took me longer than usual to read it because there were times I just couldn’t read any more and had to put it down. I’ve read so many books about wars and the atrocities committed and have never been quite as affected as I was by this book. The main characters are young, innocent children who are asked to do the impossible – travel through dark, cold, dangerous forests and try to find honest, caring people who can help them. As a mother, I can’t imagine the desperation that would be in these women’s minds to make such a decision for their children but it was that or have them starve or freeze to death. There are some scenes in this book that it will be difficult to get out of my mind. The writing deserves 5 stars but the subject matter was too hard even for this lover of dark, tragic books.Recommended but do know that the subject matter is a very rough one.This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The second world war has almost ended. Russian troops advance into East Prussia, forcing the women and children from their homes. The town is peopled by only women and children, old men, able body men off to fight. Eve and her husband's sister, with their children are forced out of their home, made to live in a shed, the only thing they were allowed to take a small metal stove. They dont know whether their men are even alive. The Russians are cruel, shooting people at will, forcing themselves on the women. Children are not exempt. They are freezing and starving. Young boys take on the roles of providers, sneaking perilously into Lithuania in an effort to find food. They are called wolf children. The young forced to see things no child should ever have to see, growing up much too soon.A very difficult book to read. There is no shortage of cruelty, brutality. Nothing harder for a mother to watch her children starve, say I'm hungry and have nothing to feed them. Watching them put themselves in dangerous situations just for a piece of bread. Yet, there are kindnesses found, given in unexpected places. Beauty noticed when beauty is not what surrounds you.One such incident provokes the following thoughts by a child who thinks they found a measure of safety."The days passed by quickly and sweetly. Like a drink sweetened with honey, or sap from a tree which comes up from the very depths of the earth and flows along the branches until it rises towards the sun, making buds burst, blossoms bloom, scents soak the air. In those buds, in their power, you can feel the fruit, its sourness and coolness, lightly refreshing the palate."The prose is sometimes blunt, elemental, sometime elegant even beautiful. Yet, the story is a tragic one, this book said to open the dialogue in Lithuania about what went on after the war. The epilogue explains how this author came to write this book, and what it accomplished by being published.ARC from library thing.

[grumpydan · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Although this is a depressing story of children that were orphaned or abandoned in East Prussia once the Russians took over after WWII, I found it fascinating that these stories of the wolf children were not known until after collapse of the USSR. As horrifying as these tales are, this book was not only disjointed but not really cohesive. I don’t think it was the translation, but more like the author tried to put together a story by using what he learned through telephone interviews with one of the survivors. It is rough to hear of what these people went through and how they survived or tried to. I really wanted to like this one, but jumping from one character to another without knowing what happened left me unfulfilled.

[jreynolds1959 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What a sad part of history that you had women and children from Germany who were left all alone and starving. The women and the children were taking treks into Lithuania to scavenge for food for themselves and their families. They travel through absolute wilderness to find any way of acquiring food. They live in abandoned sheds, barns, etc because their homes were taken by others. While the history of this is terrible, I found this novel to be so disjointed in the telling of that story. We keep being introduced to characters that don't get blended and we are at a loss sometimes to remember who is who. This really could have flowed better, with more substance given to the characters and their connections.

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the Shadow of Wolves begins in the winter of 1946. It tells the story of the “wolf children” - orphans fleeing from the Russian Army in East Prussia at the end of World War II. They traveled in rag-tag bands to Lithuania in search of food and shelter. Many hid in the forests or the streets.The author begins by verbally panning across the landscape, describing bleak chiaroscuro images: “here is a dog with a blackened human hand in its teeth; here are the eyes of the starving, here is famine, famine and famine; here are corpses - death and corpses;” and so on. He then focuses in on one family, inspired by testimony the author heard from the son of one of the wolf children, who is called Renate in the book.The harshness of life endured by common people in the aftermath of the war will be unfamiliar to many, who know mainly about the political movements of the time and perhaps some of the battles that were fought. This book brings the war down to eye-level with insight into the devastating impact on the quotidian. Though the events described by the book are horrific, the tone is poetic and the structure is quite cinematic. It is not an uplifting story, but it is an important one. As the author noted in his Epilogue, the man who was the daughter of Renate “wanted this subject not to be forgotten, wanted the misfortunes those people had suffered to be remembered.” Alvydas Šlepikas used his familiarity with drama and film technique to make sure, through this book, the experiences of the wolf children would be memorialized.

[labfs39 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Wolfskinder, or wolf-children, were German children, mainly from East Prussia, who went to Lithuania after the Second World War looking for food and often a home. Newly occupied by the Soviet army, eastern Germany was a grim place after the war. Many were forced from their homes and lived on the streets, and that first winter of occupation the weather was particularly harsh. Food shortages became famine, as supplies were sent east by the trainload. Women were often the sole breadwinners, but with no work, they and their children became scavengers and prey for Soviet soldiers. Some families resorted to trying to sell children to Lithuanian farmers at markets, in exchange for food that might save their other children. Older children began migrating east into Lithuanian looking for food to bring home to their families. Some were taken in by strangers and stayed.The author originally intended to make a documentary about the wolf-children, but lacked funding. Over a decade later, the idea became this novel, the author's first. It won book of the year when it was first published in Lithuania in 2011 and became the most widely read novel in Lithuania in 2012. Although the author was able to interview one woman who had been a wolf-child and learned a great deal about another through her son, most of the people and their stories seem to be largely forgotten.The novel begins with Eva and Martha, two friends who are trying to bring home scavenged potato peels to their children. Chased by Soviet soldiers, they make it to their homes, only to be accosted later. Eva and her children are living in a shed on the property they formerly owned. A tiny stove keeps them from freezing, but starvation is eminent. The arrival of Heinz, a son who made it to Lithuania and back, means enough food to survive a little longer. As things deteriorate, more children decide to attempt the journey to Lithuania for food. Their story, and particularly that of Renate, one of Eva's children, is the core of the novel.The tone is bleak, and the story grim; yet the language is poetic at times and the backdrop cinematographic. It is hard to discern how the translation has effected the novel, but a more vigorous editing might have tightened the plot line and smoothed the sometimes rough transitions. Overall, the story was gripping and could easily become a movie script. I would read more by this author and would love to see his documentary made.

[meaqhan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

** I received a copy of In the Shadow of Wolves as a courtesy of the publisher. This has not affected my rating or review of the novel. **This book was quite sad, not in the way of tear-jerking moments or death and terror, but in the knowledge that the situation for these people, inspired by the stories of actual wolf-children, were trapped in a hopeless and desperate situation, deserving of attention, yet forgotten by history.The story itself was not too long, but conveyed its message well. Renate was a compelling lead to the story, since a story this violent and dark is difficult to portray well through the eyes of a child.Overall, this book was enjoyable, and I found it to be an easy read despite the devastating nature of its contents. I would definitely recommend this for anybody interested in historical fiction, or the story of the poor wolf-children.

[lynnsoprano · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Despite an abrupt ending that makes the book feel incomplete, this is an excellent story that needs to be told. The work is based on the real life "wolf children," German children living in what was East Prussia who, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, made their way to Lithuania to escape the famine and death wreaked by the conquering Soviet army. It is in many ways a brutal and difficult story to read, because the author has so clearly depicted the nightmarish lives these people lived.The writing is beautiful, and the translation is very smooth. It's a relatively short book, quickly read, but slowly absorbed. There are scenes which will stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend.Thanks to Oneworld Publications and LibraryThing for the opportunity to read and review this book.