NEW RELEASE ▪ FICTION ▪ OCTOBER 2026
The Boy Who Loved Trees
When Artie Avilis joins a KGB-led tour to the land of his family's heritage, he expects answers about where he comes from. What he finds instead will cost him everything he thought he could keep hidden.
Behind the Iron Curtain, identity is policed, desire is dangerous, and even private truths carry consequences. As Cold War tensions mount, Artie is pulled into a web of political and personal intrigue that forces him to confront what he believes, what he wants, and what he is willing to risk to live honestly in a world that demands silence.
Woven through with Lithuanian folk tales and fragments of found haiku, The Boy Who Loved Trees is a lyrical debut of longing, secrecy, and the quiet defiance of becoming oneself.
Early praise!
An inspiring and powerful story of LGBTQ identity, migration, and adolescence with the backdrop of the 1980s Cold War. This novel should immediately join the ranks of the 'queer canon’ - and the world canon for that matter!
— Ben Francisco, Award-Winning Author
M M De Voe’s The Boy Who Loved Trees is a coming of age (if not out of the closet) story of two weeks in the 1980s Soviet Union that will curl your toes and break your heart.
— Terese Svoboda, Guggenheim Fellow & author of Great American Desert
The Boy Who Loved Trees is a book of secrets partially glimpsed and put back into the closet for later—to read this book is to immerse yourself in the 1980s of immigrants and exiles in all of its hideous glory and glorious dysfunction. It is magnificent!
—Marcela Sulak, 2021 National Jewish Book Award finalist for poetry
The pages fly by. At every turn, the reader runs into vivid surprises, humor, and political intrigue.
—Henry Sussman, Bloomsbury Author and Scholar
REVIEW · OCT 17, 2026 · NO SPOILER
“The profundity. The learning.”
In Traveling to Vilnius in 1985 to Find Himself, writer and poet Tucker Lieberman reviews the novel in his Medium column, following Artie's journey through identity, sexuality and his father's hidden past.
REVIEW · OCT 15, 2026
“…a nation with a vibrant culture, even under occupation.”
Cristina Deptula praises the novel's urgent pace, its humor at the expense of Soviet tour guides, and its vivid picture of 1980s occupied Lithuania.
INTERVIEW · Oct 15 2026 · NO SPOILER
“The entire book is a cautionary tale.”
In M. M. De Voe Revisits Soviet Lithuania in Her Debut Novel, Jurate Kazickas talks with the author about growing up Lithuanian in Texas, her own KGB-sponsored tour in the 1980s, and the folk tales that open each part of the book.
THE COVER ART
Edita Suchockytė
Edita Suchockytė is a Graphic artist and painter living in Lithuania where she has a gorgeous studio gallery in the trendy new Paupys area of Vilnius.
She has created illustrations for more than 30 children's, educational, and literary books. Among her most famous works are "Vario varteliai" by the children's poet Martynas Vainilaitis (winner of the Children's Book of the Year, 2006)
Educated at Vilnius Art Academy, E. Suchockytė is known across Europe as a top portrait and large-format etching artist. Her work balances technical mastery with enchanting whimsy.
More of her work at editasuchockyte.com
