The action of The Road to Nowhere focuses on the fate of Paweł, an intellectual, writer and journalist, who tries to avoid collaborating with the new rulers.
He works as a lumberjack, as a coachman and smuggler. He gets romantically involved, tries conspiracy, and finally hurriedly escapes with his wife, in order to avoid deportation to Siberia. The increasing isolation of Paweł is an example of the increasing atomisation and degradation of society, even at the level of family life. The reason for succumbing to this process is above all fear in its various forms and intensities. A good deal of space in the novel is devoted to fascinating discussions of ideas between the protagonists on the topic of Russia,
communism, religion and God. The descriptions are also important, documenting the everyday life under the occupation and describing the beauty of nature indifferent to human dramas. The novel draws upon nineteenth-century critical realism, while enriching it with elements of reportage and authentic documentation. The ambivalent title has been interpreted as a succinct definition of communism, but also as a pessimistic description of the situation of people rebelling against totalitarian rule. Critics have placed The Road to Nowhere together with novels concerned with the totalitarian experience, such as those by Orwell or Solzhenitsyn.
Maciej Urbanowski, translated by Christopher Garbowski
