Andrej Nikolaidis’ The Leaving can be seen not only as a story about one man’s final journey, but also as an exploration of the end of an era and a civilization in decline. A reflective literary road novel that explores the collapse of toxic masculinity, love, and societal ideals.

Terminally ill, the (anti)hero narrator sets off from his Mediterranean home with his six-year-old daughter on what will be their last trip together. Their journey unfolds like a road movie, both literal and emotional, through a landscape marked by political decay and personal loss. As they travel, fragments of the past resurface: a broken marriage, a stolen fortune, and a country consumed by corruption, greed, and violence. His estranged wife left for a woman, now living in London. It is to her that he is headed, intending to entrust his daughter to her care before he dies. To secure the daughter’s future, the narrator stole money from Montenegro’s corrupt head of state, aided by two close friends—a gay couple active in a radical leftist hacker collective. As the journey progresses, the threat of retribution grows, and the question arises: can he get his daughter to safety before it’s too late?

The novel takes place over the course of a single day and is written in an essayistic style that blends intimate reflection with sharp political and social critique. Nikolaidis exposes a society hollowed out by greed, apathy, consumerism, and oligarchic rule. In a voice that is both misanthropic and deeply human, the narrator offers a brutal commentary on contemporary Montenegro, where hope, dignity, and compassion seem to survive only in society’s margins—among the forgotten and the outcasts.

 

“It’s a very serious piece that contemplates the last days of civilization—perhaps the very civilization this generation, our generation, still belongs to. By portraying life as it truly is, both locally and globally, it suggests that all the conditions for Judgment Day have already been met.” – Centar za kulturu I informisanje Banovići

“[The Leaving] by Andrej Nikolaidis is a true testament to the fact that it doesn’t take many pages…to tackle recent and important topics. [It] is a small read in terms of quantity, but there will be more to say about quality. The Leaving is ultimately a novel about care and escape. The author brings to the forefront a great question—one that rises above eras, circumstances, and everything temporary in human history: the question of parenthood.” – Booksa

 

103 pages – Original language: Bosnian/Bosnia-Herzegovina & Croatia (Buybook, 2020) – Foreign Editions: English/UK & Commonwealth (Peirene Press, 2026)