Homeward from Heaven is Boris Poplavsky's masterpiece, written just before his life was cut short by a drug overdose at the age of thirty-two. Set in Paris and on the French Riviera, it recounts the escapades, malaise, and love affairs of a bohemian group of Russian expatriates.
Boris Poplavsky (1903-35) was born in Moscow to a wealthy family and fled Russia in the wake of the October Revolution, settling in Paris in 1921. Although he published only a handful of excerpts from larger works and a single book of poetry during his lifetime, he was hailed by his peers as one of the leading writers of his generation. His works in English translation include the novel Apollon Bezobrazov (2015).
Bryan Karetnyk is the translator of Alexander Grin's Fandango and Other Stories (Columbia, 2020) as well as works by Gaito Gazdanov, Irina Odoevtseva, and Yuri Felsen. He is the editor and principal translator of the anthology Russian Émigré Short Stories from Bunin to Yanovsky (2017).