Because this novel encompasses themes that are highly relevant to us as individuals, to our families, to cultural discourse, and raises questions about serious problems in contemporary Lithuania—violence against children, women, sexual violence, depression, the loss of loved ones, identity confusion experienced by Lithuanian emigres and immigrants, the search for a meaningful life, familial relationships—it is relevant to both men and women, to the entirity of today's society. The novel becomes an odd type of history textbook while also a primer on psychology, while at the same time it functions as an expressive work of literature.