Antanas Sileika - Underground

Thanks: above all to Snaige, who was a supportive and intelligent reader during the tumultuous period of a few highs and numerous lows during which this novel was being written; and to my sons, Dainius and Gint, who were valuable sounding boards. Thanks as well to Anne McDermid, my agent, who continued to believe in this project; to Patrick Crean of Thomas Allen, whose enthusiasm for the novel was exhilarating; to Janice Zawerbny, whose insight into its structure was critical to its successful completion; to my first readers and critics, Joe Kertes, Wayson Choy, Madeleine Matte, Charlotte Empey and Nathan Whitlock; to the Canada Council, whose funding helped cover my research trips; and to two surviving partisans who told me the details of their lives as well as their sufferings in prison—Juozas Jakavonis (code-named Tigras, who should have been there for the seizure of Merkine but narrowly missed the event) and Tekle Kalvinskiene, on whose father’s farm on the Polish side of the border many partisans, including Juozas Luksa, took refuge.

Thanks to in-country helpers and advisers Dr. Arvydas Anusauskas and Darius Ross; and to all the following, in no particular order, though with great love and appreciation for their kindness: Saulius and Silva Sondeckis, Antanas and Danule Sipaila, Jonas Jurasas and Ausra Marija Sluckaite-Jurasiene, Giedrius Subacius, Neringa Klumbyt, Leonidas Donskis, Violeta Kelertiene, Darius Kuolys, Paulius Sondeckis, Justinas Sajauskas, Stasys Stacevicius, Aldona Raugalaite, Grazina Siauciunas, Egle Jurkeviciene and Habib Massoud (of the office of the Canadian embassy in Lithuania), Genius Procuta, Richard Handler, John Bentley Mays, Wodek Szemberg, Monica Pacheco, Laimonas Briedis, Milda Danyte, Ruta Slapkauskaite, Daiva Mikalonyte, Egidijus Aleksandravicius, Algis Mickunas, Jurate Visockaite, Birute Garbaravicius, Arturas Petronis, Algis Ruksenas, Vilis Normanas and Gitana Judvytyte.

Copyright © 2011 Antanas Sileika

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems—without the prior written permission of the publisher, or in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Sileika, Antanas, 1953–

Underground / Antanas Sileika.

ISBN 978-0-88762-736-1

I. Title.

PS8587.I2656U53 2011 C813’.54 C2010-907342-8

Editor: Janice Zawerbny

Jacket design: Michel Vrána

Jacket photo: Snaige Sileika

Published by Thomas Allen Publishers,

a division of Thomas Allen & Son Limited,

390 Steelcase Road East

Markham, Ontario L3R 1G2 Canada

www.thomasallen.ca

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of The Ontario Arts Council for its publishing program.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada.

We acknowledge the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

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Printed and Bound in Canada by Transcontinental Printing

Text Printed on a 100% PCW recycled stock.