In the distant Belarusian past, Uladzimir Karatkevich found and retold to his contemporaries many dramatic, poignantly touching stories about love, nobility, and an indestructible love for life.
The main character of "The Boat of Despair," Hiervasy Vylivakha, spends his time at cheerful festivities and in romantic adventures. He doesn't yet know who the last woman in his life will be, what his last love will be like, and how his chess match with Lady Death will end. Fantasy, mysticism, fears, gallows humor – this work contains everything that makes literary baroque so alluring.
