Homeward from Heaven
A journey through love and existential malaise
Boris Poplavsky author Bryan Karetnyk translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:28th Feb '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This profound novel explores love and existential themes through the journey of Oleg, a Russian expatriate, in Homeward from Heaven.
Written just before his untimely death at the age of thirty-two, Homeward from Heaven is Boris Poplavsky’s literary masterpiece. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Paris and the idyllic French Riviera, the novel explores the lives of a group of Russian expatriates navigating love, existential malaise, and the bohemian lifestyle. This final work from the interwar Russian diaspora captures the essence of a fleeting era through its rich character portrayals and evocative settings.
The story centers on Oleg, the protagonist and occasional narrator, whose intense passion for two women leads him on a transformative journey. His relationship with Tania begins at a seaside resort but ends in heartbreak when she leaves him. In the bustling cafés of Montparnasse, Oleg encounters Katia, who offers him both physical intimacy and emotional honesty. However, despite these connections, he remains haunted by a deep sense of disquiet and loss, especially when he unexpectedly reunites with Tania in Paris.
Homeward from Heaven is often seen as semi-autobiographical, reflecting Poplavsky’s own experiences. The novel's unflinching exploration of sexuality and poverty is complemented by its rich symbolism and allusions. Blending psychological insight, philosophical musings, and social commentary, Poplavsky's prose is a mixture of poetic, mystical, and erotic elements, making this work a daring example of literary modernism and an insightful meditation on the émigré experience.
[Poplavsky] was, after all, the first hippy, the original flower child. -- Vladimir Nabokov
In the work of Boris Poplavsky, spiritual quests founder on the jagged shoals of daily existence, a dreadful world-weariness is fused with the restless energy of youth. Only a translator as sensitive and as versatile as Bryan Karetnyk could have re-created the alarming, electrifying effect of Homeward from Heaven. Open the pages and feel the current beneath your fingers. -- Boris Dralyuk, translator of Isaac Babel, Mikhail Zoshchenko, and others
For Boris Poplavsky’s autobiographical hero—a rebellious decadent refugee in Paris of the 1930s—the fallout from catastrophic love affairs, described with graphic boldness, exuberance, and malicious joy, is indistinguishable from the trauma of exile from Russia. This is not a novel about exile. This is a unique verbal incarnation of the exiled spirit. -- Zinovy Zinik, author of History Thieves
This compelling novel, translated with literary flair, opens a fresh window on Russian literature beyond its well-known classics. Homeward from Heaven seamlessly blends Russian sensibilities with European modernity and Eastern spirituality. Saturated with mystical insights and intense passion, Poplavsky’s lyrical prose celebrates the evanescent beauty of every human experience. -- Maria Rubins, author of Russian Montparnasse: Transnational Writing in Interwar Paris
The book is compelling reading, with some beautifully lyrical writing, stream-of-consciousness prose sections and a most marvellous sense of place. -- Karen Langley * Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings *
Nearly a century after the novel’s composition, another wave of displacement from the former Russian empire demonstrates that Poplavsky’s tragic surrealist visions were all too real. With its forlorn peregrinations and portraits of lost exiles, Homeward from Heaven is very much a book for these times. -- José Vergara * Times Literary Supplement *
This impressive version of Homewards from Heaven is an important addition to the body of Russian émigré writing available in English. -- Peter France * Translation and Literature *
ISBN: 9780231199315
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
296 pages