One of the major émigré Lithuanian writers of the twentieth century, playwright Kostas Ostrauskas stands out from the rest of the exile writers for his unsentimental attitude toward the fate that befell his nation during World War II and several occupations by the Soviets and the Nazis and for his ability to rise above these inherently dramatic events. With the exception of some historical rewriting and re-creation, usually about centuries other than the twentieth, he has opted to make his thematic concerns more universal problems such as anxiety, fear, boredom, injustice, cruelty, aging, love, and death. Praised as a writer of international importance, he is nonetheless almost unknown outside his own language group. He can be classed as part of a small body of avant-garde Lithuanian writers of all genres for his experiments with language and form, his tendency to abstractionism, his black humor, and his...