Alma Karlin,
To the Horizon and Back
Author: Dimitrij Grčar
Published by: Olympia Publishers (2022)
She walked the world alone.
Not to be seen, but to understand.
And the world never quite forgave her for it.
Alma Karlin, To the Horizon and Back is a luminous and introspective novel based on the extraordinary real-life journey of Alma M. Karlin — the Slovenian writer, polyglot, and solo world traveler who defied the conventions of her time.
Set against the backdrop of a world still governed by empire and patriarchy, the novel traces Alma’s journey from Celje to the farthest corners of the globe: the steaming jungles of Java, the empty expanses of the Pacific, the heights of the Andes. Everywhere she goes, she writes — and everywhere she writes, she’s reminded she does not belong.
Alma’s travels were not about escape. They were about immersion — in cultures, languages, solitude, and the unshakable belief that meaning lies beyond borders. But when she returns to Europe, she finds her name erased, her books banned, and her house raided. In silence, she starts over. Again.
This novel reclaims her voice — sharp, patient, endlessly observant — and gives her the final word on her own life.
I Am Alma ...
“I wasn’t running away.
I was moving toward something I couldn’t yet name.
People say I was brave. I say I was curious.
There’s a difference.”
“I never married.
I preferred silence to company.
And solitude to compromise.”
“My name is Alma Maximiliana Karlin.
I carried a typewriter in my suitcase and a hunger in my spine.
I spoke nine languages and found home in none.
I traveled the world not to be admired, but to observe.”
“I am not a heroine.
I’m a witness.
To empires dissolving. To beauty unspoken.
To the dignity of people no one asked about.”
Historical Echoes
- The aftermath of World War I and the fall of empires (1918–1920s)
- Global routes of exploration during the interwar period
- The rise of fascism and censorship in 1930s Europe
- The persecution of writers under Nazi and totalitarian regimes
- The forgotten legacy of female intellectuals and explorers
themes
- Radical solitude: A woman alone in the world, by choice
- Spiritual wanderlust: Searching for more than just destinations
- Language as power: Writing in silence when no one wants your truth
- Colonial ambivalence: Witnessing the world, not exploiting it
- Neurodivergent perspective: A mind that feels too much, sees too far
EXCERPT OF THE BOOK
“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all.” — Helen Keller
Alma Karlin’s life was the most daring adventure of her time.
This richly imagined novel is based on the extraordinary true story of Alma Maximiliana Karlin — a traveler, writer, polyglot, and spiritual seeker who, in the early 20th century, set out alone to circle the globe with nothing but a typewriter, a deep hunger for knowledge, and an unshakable will.
Alma Karlin: To the Horizon and Back is not a travelogue. It is a deeply human, literary portrait of a woman far ahead of her time — one who spoke nine languages, none of which was truly her own. Born in Celje, she rejected her homeland’s narrow-mindedness and instead embraced the world. Her travels took her to the farthest corners of the Earth, from indigenous tribes to tropical islands, from steaming jungles to ancient temples — all without companionship or protection, in an era when women required escorts just to stroll a city street.
Seen as antisocial, even masochistic, Alma was fiercely intelligent, insatiably curious, and emotionally uncompromising. Today, we might recognize her as neurodivergent. Then, she was simply called “strange.” But behind her solitude was a relentless search for meaning — in language, in landscape, in silence.
The novel blends fact and fiction to offer a narrative as poetic as it is raw, based on her autobiographies, letters, stories, and the author’s own vision. It reclaims Alma from myth and misinterpretation — from the decades in which her brilliance was buried beneath gossip, envy, and dismissal.
In Alma’s own words, it was nature — the rivers, hills, and the endless horizon — that calmed her when the world grew too loud.
“It produced a sense of eternity in me, and soothed me temporarily from my misery around the world…”
This is a story of a woman who didn’t just travel — she transcended.
She left behind safety, comfort, even understanding, and replaced them with something deeper: truth as experience.