There’s a big spotlight, if you will, on space this week in Central Florida, with NASA’s Artemis II launch making history as the first mission around the moon in 50 years.
It’s a perfect time, then, to talk about Spaceman of Bohemia, a sci-fi novel written by 2011 University of Central Florida alum Jaroslav Kalfař. He’ll be at UCF discussing the book – which was the basis for the 2024 film Spaceman starring Adam Sandler – as part of “UCF Celebrates the Arts.” That’s an annual event highlighting the artistic endeavors and successes of UCF’s students, faculty, and grads.
The titular Spaceman of Bohemia is, like Kalfař himself, from the Czech Republic. He’s an astronaut on that country’s first space mission. But as Kalfař explains, the mission journeys through deep emotion, as well as deep space.
In the book, the astronaut is on a six-month solo mission. As the time wears on and he wrestles with thoughts of his life back home – his tenuous relationship with his wife, a family past full of secrets – he meets a spider-like alien who helps him come to grips with his literal and figurative place in the universe.
Or does he? The alien creature “may or may not be real,” said Kalfař.
The journey begins in Central Florida
Kalfař was a student at UCF when he started work on the short story that would become Spaceman of Bohemia. “It was thanks to the encouragement of my professors at UCF and the kind of one-on-one mentorship that one doesn't usually get, especially at a university that size, that gave me the confidence and gave me the kind of eyes on my work that I needed to refine it, and to really get it where it needed to be,” he said.
That’s why he’s happy to come back to UCF during "UCF Celebrates the Arts" and lead a discussion about his book and his experiences.
Over the moon
Kalfař used a space-based metaphor to describe the feeling of becoming a published author and realizing that his novel is a success. “I have never gone to space, but I would imagine that it’s not too far off from just sitting inside a space shuttle and feeling that one is ascending toward their biggest dream, but also the fear and anxiety that comes with it. A fulfillment of a lifelong dream, a life completely transformed, but of course there’s a great deal of unknown.”
Kalfař has since published a second novel, A Brief History of Living Forever.
