Vilnius unveils monument to French writer

Vilnius has erected a monument paying tribute to renowned French writer Romain Gary, who spent his childhood in the city.

Lithuanian sculptor Romualdas Kvintas crafted a statue of a boy looking at the sky while clutching a shoe to his heart.

The scene is an episode from Gary's childhood, when the writer fell in love for the first time. His mother advised him to look upwards to bring out the blue in his eyes, however he took to chewing his shoe when this failed to attract the girl.

Gary described the event - alongside stories of life from his Basanaviciaus Street house - in his book The Promise of Dawn. The sculpture will now stand near his former home.

Gary, whose original surname was Kacew, was born in Vilnius in May 1914.

In 1945 he published his first novel European Education, which gained wide recognition. French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre called the novel the best book about the resistance.

In 1956, Gary won the Prix Goncourt for his novel The Roots of Heaven, which tells a story about ecology, barbaric treatment of nature.

Writing under the pseudonym of Emile Ajar, in 1975 he won the second Prix Goncourt for his book Life Ahead of You. He is the only writer in the history of literature to twice win the prestigious prize.

Gary died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Paris in 1980.