The Lithuanian teenage novel Črnovodci is a problematic text with elements of a mystical, adventure, and detective story. It openly addresses topics that are important to young people: bullying, the search for identity and meaning, the desire for friendship and recognition, and moral dilemmas.
The action in the text is dynamic and tense until the end. The setting of the novel is a small town and a flooded plain, which actually exist, although the names of the places are not mentioned in the text. The images of the flood create an unforgettable, mystical atmosphere. Water in the novel acts as a substance and as a metaphor – it is constantly compared to human nature. For man, like water, is very diverse – calm, turbulent, sometimes unpredictable. Some are like a river, others like a spring, others like the sea, but they are all changeable and every water can also be cloudy due to shortcomings, injustices and secrets.
We are all like black water, that is, beings of darkness and light at the same time. Therefore, in Črnovodci, it is not only teenagers who are imperfect and fallible, but also adults. (taken from the general page of Založba Malinc)