A literary project
Homes
We Borrowed
Homes we borrowed is a collective book project exploring displacement, identity, and the quiet transformations that happen when life unfolds far from where it began.
It is a collection of stories about living abroad — about building lives in places that were never originally ours, and learning how to inhabit homes we borrowed, both literally and metaphorically.
This project looks beyond the romanticised version of life abroad to explore its deeper truths: freedom and fracture, reinvention and loneliness, movement and belonging. It is about the invisible emotional architecture of being an expat — the parts that are lived deeply, but rarely spoken aloud.
Each chapter below explores a different texture of life abroad. If a theme resonates with you, I invite you to share your story.
01
Home and the Idea of Elsewhere
This opening explores the idea of home — not only as a physical place but as memory, identity, expectation. Why do we leave when nothing — or something — is visibly broken at home? Is it ambition, boredom, heartbreak, curiosity, illusion? The chapter examines the dream of a better elsewhere: better weather, better love, better future — and the moment when a thought becomes a decision.
Voices
“I moved to Barcelona thinking I was chasing a better life. I was really chasing a better version of myself.”
— From Chapter 1
“The loneliest I ever felt was surrounded by people at a party where everyone spoke a language I couldn't quite reach.”
— From Chapter 6
“I didn't notice I had changed until I came home and nothing fit the same way anymore — not my clothes, not my conversations.”
— From Chapter 10
These are illustrative examples. Real contributor excerpts will appear here as stories arrive.
About
Olive
My name is Oliwia but friends call me Olive. I was born in Poland, and around a decade ago I decided to leave in search of something better elsewhere.
That search has taken me across countries and versions of myself — from Poland to Spain, then the UK, then Australia, back to the UK, and finally to the Netherlands, where I have spent the last several years.
I have always been drawn to movement: travelling, meeting new cultures, beginning again, and discovering what life can look like somewhere unfamiliar. I have never stayed too long in one place.
The idea for this project came to me about a year ago, after a difficult heartbreak. I was on the phone with my Polish best friend, who had also spent years moving across countries. We found ourselves comparing the dream of living elsewhere with the reality of it — the beauty, the cost, the freedom, the loneliness, and the strange feeling of belonging everywhere and nowhere at once.
That conversation became the beginning of this book.
Email oliwkapopek@gmail.com
WhatsApp +48 690 003 097