A History of the Island

By: Eugene Vodolazkin, Lisa C. Hayden - translator

Narrated by: Daniel Henning

This ingenious novel is presented as a chronicle of an island from medieval to modern times. The island is not on the map, but it is real beyond doubt. It cannot be found in history books, yet the events are painfully recognizable. The monastic chroniclers dutifully narrate events they witness. The entries mostly seem objective, but at least one monk simultaneously drafts and hides a "true" history, to be discovered centuries later. And why has someone snipped out a key prophesy about the island's fate?

These chronicles receive commentary today from an elderly couple who are the island's former rulers. Prince Parfeny and Princess Ksenia are truly extraordinary: they are now 347 years old. Eyewitnesses to much of their island's turbulent history, they offer sharp-eyed observations on the changing flow of time and their people's persistent delusions. Why is the royal couple still alive? Is there a chance that an old prophecy comes to pass, and two righteous persons save the island from catastrophe?

Vodolazkin is at his best recasting history, in all its hubris and horror, by finding the humor in its absurdity. For listeners with an appetite for more than a dry, rational, scientific view of what motivates, divides, and unites people, A History of the Island conjures a world still suffused with mystical powers.

©2023 Plough Publishing House (P)2023 Tantor

Unique and Memorable Tale of Imaginative History

This is a very unique work, doing something like Thomas More’s Utopia in crafting a fictional place with its own history, culture, significant people and mythos. At the same time, it gives a focus on time in a way More’s book doesn’t, taking the reader on a memorable and very often hilarious journey through the island’s history, all provided within a realistic frame-narrative that shows how the actual text was written down and by whom. Different epochs clearly form analogues with our own history, especially that of Europe and particularly Russia, from the pagan tribes to the medieval monarchy to the Communist revolution and attempted states into the modern age, all portrayed with the benefit of hindsight’s wisdom and a satirical wit. Two protagonists accompany the island through much of its history and end up being symbolic in a way that also commands a good deal of affection.

The perfect allegory

The writing is Symbolic on every level, the story is incredibly deep and meaningful. The writer demonstrates a profound understanding of history, politics, religion, culture, modernity, and the old world.

This constellation of writer,translator and reader just doesn’t work

I’m admirer of Vodolazkin’s novels but this seems the weakest ,it’s like a joke that falls flat the telling, hard to tell where the problem is— narration,translation or story. The novel ends beautifully enough. It illustrates Vodolazkin’s love of the analog world of the Middle Ages with its mix of magic ,slow walking and funky dead pan humor , and his dislike of the modern digital mechanical rational world with its efficiencies and mass produced cruelties. Behind the charm is a serious anti-modernness. The deeply built in pessimism and cynicism is softened and artful but still… For me it was kind of head scratcher I understand in Russian history there is no silver age much less a golden one to return to or simply admire. Vodolazkin handles this fact well by seeking s something less to admire , but for all the intelligence and many insights what we hear read and translated here just doesn’t work. One thing that doesn’t change is that Vodolazkin is still one of world’s greatest writers

Cartoonish Narration Makes Farce of Fairytale

like a previous reviewer, I am an admirer and enjoyer of vodalaskins fiction. unfortunately, the narration of this novel was a constant distraction for me. Starting with the very first sentence of the book, I found the caricature style reading to be unpleasant and farcical. I intend to read the book in print, because I suspect there is a great satirical fantasy hidden behind the cartoonish voicing in this audiobook.