The latest addition to my website is Boris Poplavsky‘s Домой с небес (Homeward from Heaven). This is a follow-up to his earlier Аполлон Безобразов (Apollon Bezobrazov) and, indeed, features the devilish character Apollon Bezobrazov, who appears to assist our hero, Oleg, when things are not going well. Oleg is a Russian exile living in Paris and not a particularly admirable character. He is lazy, living on handouts. He will not get a job and spends much of his time pondering on his life and life in general. However, during this book he has a relationship with two women, Tania and Katia, and both relationships are on-again, off-again. He claims to be a reader but has never finished a book. He hangs out with various Russian friends but then they drift apart. And when things are going badly, Apollon Bezobrazov, the or, at least, a devil is there. This was sadly Bezobrazov’s last book (he died of a heroin overdose not long after) but if you like books about anti-heros, it is a very enjoyable book.