Memoirs of a Life Cut Short (Jauno zmogaus memuarai) is a damning document to the falsity of a system that slowly crushed everyone in its wake. It is a Bildungsroman for the Homo Sovieticus: the reader sees the development of a regular, ordinary person in Soviet conditions who in one way or another becomes part of the system, and soon realises that it is almost impossible to change it or extract oneself from it.In fourteen letters from beyond the grave to his friend and teacher Tomas Kelertas, protagonist Leonas Ciparis talks about his life from his earliest days up until his last; his rise from lowly beginnings to the upper echelon of the Communist Party illustrating the possibilities of the new Soviet person.The novel brilliantly illustrates an aspect of Lithuanian society that is understood to exist, but is rarely talked about openly. On a broader scale, the reader is helped to understand the effects of totalitarian systems on the human psyche through the lens of Lithuanians living under Soviet rule.

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