The life or a writer and diplomat Romain Gary was full of adventures, and those adventures became the inspiration for several of his works. Since his childhood in Pohulanka, in Vilnius Romain was a rebellious and eccentric spirit. He never forgot Vilnius and his first love – cute Polish girl from the neighborhood, and Vilnius citizens likewise are not forgetting this talented writer – there is a sculpture next to his childhood home in Pohulanka (J. Basanavičius str.), which is inspired by his autobiographical novel “The promise of the dawn” (1960) and depicts a young boy in love – the prototype of the young Romain. The boy from the sculpture looks up to the sky and invites passers-by to notice the promising sky of Vilnius.

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Sometimes the novels of Romain Gary can be read without even knowing, that they belong to this author. In order to stay mysterious and intriguing, Romain created many pseudonyms for himself – Émile Ajar, Shatan Bogat, Lucien Brûlard, René Deville or Fosco Sinibaldi. This abundance of pseudonyms helped Romain to execute one of the biggest pranks for European literature in the 20th century – he won the prestigious Prix Goncourt twice. The first time Romain Gary was awarded Prix Goncourt for his novel “The Roots of Heaven” in 1956. Years later, when Romain heard gossip about his fading talent, he decided to prove them wrong – to win this prize once again. The only problem was that Prix Goncourt was given to the writer only once in this lifetime. So he wrote the novel “A life ahead of us” under the name Émile Ajar and this imaginary Émile Ajar won the Prix Goncourt in 1975. Romain Gary did not make it public, that he is the actual author of “A life ahead of us”, and the truth emerged only after his death. Thus the sculpture of a young Romain Gary in J. Basanavičius str. in Vilnius fully reflects the restless spirit of the talented writer – he never lacked artifice when he tried to prove his point.