[4] In 1944, upon the second Soviet occupation of Lithuania, he left for Germany,[1] where he was involved in some artistic work with Lithuanian troupes, primarily in DP (displaced person) camps.

The novel follows an exiled Lithuanian poet named Antanas Garšva who, like Škėma himself, works as an elevator operator in New York.

The author examines alienation, trauma and creativity through the character of Garšva and his tragic experiences that ultimately lead to madness.

Antanas Škėma uses the innovative (for Lithuanian literature) stream of consciousness narrative to great effect, creating entirely his own style.

The novel is defined by irony, occasional surrealism, unexpected metaphor, acute stylistic contrasts where lyrical and aesthetically delicate confessions suddenly give way to coarse, cynical images, and a broad spectrum of intertextual cultural allusions.

On the technical level, the author often plays with the sounds of words, disengaging phonemes from their literal meaning, and also expresses the cultural clash through the Americanization of language.

Originally printed by an émigré Lithuanian publishing house in London as Nida Book Club series edition (Nidos Knygų Klubo leidinys.

Since then, it has been translated and published in Estonian (1992), Latvian (2000), English (2017), as White Shroud, German (2017), as Das weiße Leintuch, and French (2024), as Le Linceul blanc.