by Martha Anne Toll
Martin Vopěnka in Washington DC, 2023
I’m not sure we are finished with Covid or that Covid is finished with us, but one renewed pleasure is going out, specifically going out to book events.
Despite Washington DC’s reputation as a one-company town for politicians, the city has a rich literary life. It’s not hard to find a literary event every day of the week. Washington is also home to embassies from almost every country in the world, and many of them have wonderful cultural offerings.
I recently attended an event at the Czech embassy, sponsored by local publisher Plamen Press in collaboration with the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center. The event featured Czech author Martin Vopěnka, in conversation with the Cheuse Center’s interim director, writer Leeya Mehta. (Here’s a video recap.)
Vopěnka obtained a degree in nuclear science and physics from the Czech Technical University and worked at Prague’s Psychiatric Research Institute before moving to literature full time, including founding his own press.
Vopěnka presents as a serious, thoughtful man with a complex inner life. He has a great love of science fiction. At the embassy, he discussed his novel, THE BACK OF BEYOND: TRAVELS WITH BENJAMIN, translated into English by Anna Bryson in 2021 and published by Plamen Press.
THE BACK OF BEYOND is a fascinating twist on the literary road trip. At age eight, Benjamin has just lost his mother to cancer. David, his father, decides to mitigate his son’s grief—and his own—by traveling to the “Back of Beyond.” This mythic destination grows with time and distance, as he takes his son out of school for adventures at the seaside, in the forest, hiking, getting lost, crossing borders through eastern Europe to Greece and beyond. Their adventures are varied, often charming, and frequently profound. Dad’s ability to comfort Benjamin, and Benjamin’s ability to comfort Dad, are hallmarks. A catastrophic event that upends their rhythm lends the book the feeling of biblical allegory.
The novel was written two decades ago when Vopěnka’s was going through a difficult divorce as a young father. His excavation of David’s roiling psyche, combined with the guileless, loving, and utterly lovable Benjamin would be enough to recommend it. Vopěnka’s language is at once authentic and exquisite.
What is truly memorable, however, is Vopěnka’s exploration of love. He doesn’t stint from marital difficulty, lust, longing, regret, parental ignorance, and emotional callousness. But neither does he stint from the essential love that binds humanity. THE BACK OF BEYOND contains life lessons I will savor for a long time. Here are some of David’s final thoughts on his road trip:
At that moment, I suddenly believed that while I had love, I had hope. Despite all my vanity, I had found an indestructible ‘and yet’ in myself. It was as if I had received the grace of God.
Vopěnka and Leeya Mehta in conversation
To have discovered Martin Vopěnka and his beautiful novel would have been enough. But that same evening I met Vopěnka’s American publisher. The Plamen Press, based in Washington, DC, specializes in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European literature in English translation. Founded and run by Roman Kostovski, the press combs literary gems from that part of the world and brings them to English speaking audiences. I was so intrigued by this publishing niche, that I asked Kostwoski to lunch.
Roman Kostovksi, Publisher, Plamen Press
Over lunch, I lost track of how many languages Kostovski speaks, but I believe it’s at least seven. Having lived in Prague, Macedonia, parts of the US, and elsewhere, Kostovski got fired up seeing a book printing machine for local authors at DC’s celebrated independent bookstore, Politics & Prose. A spark was lit, and Kostovski has been bringing translated books to Americans ever since.
All of which got me thinking about how fortuitous it was to have shown up at the Czech embassy that night. And how crucial it is to expand literary choices beyond our borders. I am grateful to both the Cheuse Center and Plamen Press for widening my horizons.
Martha Anne Toll is a DC based writer and book critic. Her debut novel, Three Muses, was shortlisted for the Gotham Book Prize and won the Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Fiction. Her second novel, Duet for One, is due out in early 2025.
(Photo Credits: Czech Embassy/Roman Kostovski)
June 01, 2023