Philip Latinowicz is a successful but disillusioned painter who returns to his hometown after an absence of twenty-three years. He hopes that revisiting his roots will inspire him to create the perfect work of art and thereby restore his faith in both art and life. Haunted by his troubled childhood, however, he falls in with shady characters and discovers the emotional, intellectual, and imaginative poverty of his own background.
The first and most enduring work by preeminent Croatian writer Miroslav Krleza, The Return of Philip Latinowicz was highly praised by Jean-Paul Sartre.