SYNOPSIS

Septyni Majos žiedai (Seven Rings of Maya) is a historical detective novel that intertwines a gripping modern murder investigation with a multi-generational saga of trauma, survival, and the enduring strength of women.

The story opens in Berlin, 2017, within the eerie confines of an abandoned amusement park—a haven for teenage gangs, drug trafficking, and violence. A baby is discovered abandoned on a bench, swaddled in a fabric stitched with words in a forgotten tongue. A Lithuanian teenager happens to witness the event, trying desperately to stay hidden, only to stumble upon the corpse of a murdered young woman nearby later that night. Detective Johann Hartog and his team are assigned to unravel the connection between these seemingly disparate events.

Hartog quickly discovers that the case cannot be solved within the bounds of standard police work. The investigation forces him to dig into the deep, tangled roots of the Tolvaičiai family. The narrative spans seven distinct time periods and locations, connecting the brutal 1945 siege of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), the rural landscapes of Lithuania, and the modern radicalization seen in Europe and Syria.

At the heart of the novel is the concept of "Maya"—the Sanskrit word for illusion—and the recurring motif of the number seven. The story weaves in the famous mathematical problem of the Seven Bridges of Königsberg (Euler's dilemma) and the mythological curse of the Goddess Pregara, who doomed the city's inhabitants to wander endlessly until the riddle of the bridges is solved. This curse serves as a metaphor for the cyclical nature of trauma and the inability to escape one's past.

The narrative is driven by the intertwined fates of four generations of women from the Tolvaičiai family. Through their eyes, the novel explores the profound theme of femicide and the psychological and physical violence inflicted upon women across different eras. From Gertrūda, who returns to the ruins of her destroyed hometown after WWII trying to rewrite history for her daughter, to Maja, the central figure whose quest for revenge blurs the line between victim and perpetrator.

As Hartog pieces together the clues—ranging from ancient dialects to Interpol smuggling reports—he uncovers a web of broken illusions, spanning from Hitler's delusions in 1938 to the modern geopolitical crises of 2025. Ultimately, Maja's vengeance is revealed as a desperate response to inherited suffering, but it is through sacrifice and forgiveness that the women finally break the cursed circle, closing the gestalt and finding liberation.