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Title: Spaceman of Bohemia
Author: Jaroslav Kalfar
Narrator: Jot Davies
Format: Unabridged
Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
Language: English
Release date: 03-08-17
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 35 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
An intergalactic odyssey of love, ambition, and self-discovery.
Orphaned as a boy, raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Procházka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country's first astronaut. When a dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him both the chance at heroism he's dreamt of and a way to atone for his father's sins as a Communist informer, he ventures boldly into the vast unknown. But in so doing, he leaves behind his devoted wife, Lenka, whose love, he realizes too late, he has sacrificed on the altar of his ambitions.
Alone in deep space, Jakub discovers a possibly imaginary giant alien spider, who becomes his unlikely companion. Over philosophical conversations about the nature of love, life, and death and the deliciousness of bacon, the pair form an intense and emotional bond. Will it be enough to see Jakub through a clash with secret Russian rivals and return him safely to Earth for a second chance with Lenka?
Rich with warmth and suspense and surprise, Spaceman of Bohemia is an exuberant delight from start to finish. Very seldom has a novel this profound taken listeners on a journey of such boundless entertainment and sheer fun.
Critic Reviews:
"Spaceman of Bohemia is a wise and elegant work composed of its own unique ethereal grace - a hauntingly beautiful story of solitude, hope, family, and love that transcends, uplifts, carries the reader away." (Dinaw Mengestu, author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears)
"An exhilarating concoction of history, social commentary, and irony. Reading like Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 crossed with a Milan Kundera novel, set in a Philip K. Dick universe, with a nod to Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, it manages to be singularly compelling while still providing mass appeal. Highly recommended." (Library Journal)
"Spaceman of Bohemia is an out-of-this-world look at all our beautiful smallnesses, from the cells of our biology to the bacterial minutiae of one broken heart. The roar of revolution and governmental injustice is cast against the depths of our emotions and the bottomless, grateful silence of the stars. Jaroslav Kalfar has spun an unforgettable tale, a poignant interplanetary work that collapses the distance between us with the beauty of its language and the unstoppable wonder of this universe he's created." (Samantha Hunt, author of Mr. Splitfoot)
Members Reviews:
A Sweet Mishmash and an Impressive Debut
As some other reviewers have stated, "Spaceman of Bohemia" is something of a mishmash; it is part science fiction (though that turns out to be a small part); part family saga; part rumination on love and what it entails; and part a mini-history of Czechoslovakia and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It is not a perfect book by any means; it meanders and rambles and goes off on digressions and lines of thought that can be tedious. However, at the end of the day (or, rather, of the book), there is a sweetness and acceptance of some of the bumps that life puts in our way, along with some sadness that things don't necessarily work out the way you'd like.
While it's impossible to exclude or ignore some of the excesses of the book (those digressions noted earlier), Kalfar definitely has talent.
