KB: The Suspect

To the pantheon of East European poets-Zagajewski, Szymborska, Herbert, Holub-we must now add Martinaitis. ‘K.B.,’ the poet’s common-man alter ego, has one foot in the miseries and fears of the post-Soviet era, one in the usual turmoils of the human self. In Laima Vince’s wonderful translation, this poetry is sharp, comic, salty, yet at the same time overflowing with compassion and tenderness. -Alicia Suskin Ostriker

Marcelijus Martinaitis is a well-known Lithuanian poet and essayist. He has published ten collections of poetry. This is his first collection in English.

Laima Vince is a poet, writer, and translator. She teaches at the University of Southern Maine and directs the Stonecoast Summer Writers’ Conference.