The action of the novel “The Other Sea” begins in Trieste, where Claudio Magris has lived since childhood (he was born in 1939), and where, as in a port city, different peoples and cultures, European and world paths have long intersected. From here, on November 28, 1909, the hero, Enrico Mreule, sets off on his long journey. We do not fully know why Enrico is leaving Europe and what he is striving for. The external motive is the reluctance to serve in the army that he hates, and generally to live in the atmosphere of the militarized, hierarchical Habsburg Empire. Arriving in South America, Enrico is engaged in herding cattle, wanders around Patagonia, lives one - rather wild - life there, returns to Europe, teaches Latin, marries and lives another life - quite cultural, but just as external. The novel widely presents the very unique culture of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which ended with the First World War, as well as interesting Latin American observations of the hero. But the main thing for Enrico Mreule, a European intellectual rooted in the traditions of his culture, but always appealing to other cultures that are just as close to him, happens in the realm of spirit. And his thought hovers mainly in the areas of philosophy, history and religion.