Island

By: Aldous Huxley

Narrated by: Simon Vance

In his final novel - which he considered his most important - Aldous Huxley transports us to the remote Pacific island of Pala, where an ideal society has flourished for 120 years.

Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala, and events are set in motion when an agent of the conspirators, a newspaperman named Faranby, is shipwrecked there. What Faranby doesn't expect is how his time with the people of Pala will revolutionize all his values and - to his amazement - give him hope.

©1962 Aldous Huxley (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

" Island...holds the charm of Huxley's cultured prose and fertile mind." ( The Guardian)

Favorite Huxley work

Amazing book about self discovery, parallels to modern society, Utopianism, spiritualism and enlightenment. I highly recommend this book as a lighter more positive version of Huxley's Brave New World

Now I know why it was required reading for every aspiring hippy!

Henceforth, when I start any discussion concerning human nature, families, community, society, technology or religion I will ask, “Have you read ISLAND?” If not, then visit me again after you have.

Not only a concise statement of Huxley’s philosophy but a suspenseful plot, alas all to common in the far flung colonies.

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Essential reading for 2024

Pay attention to this novel as we enter election 2024. Attention! Attention! Attention! Attention! Attention!

Perfect

I looked at this book several years ago after having read Brave New World. At the time I decided to pass. Back then, this book would have made little-to no sense to me and I would likely have found it very boring. I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish it. A slow, but necessary life journey finally lead me back. I listened to it and I loved every second of it. I see that other reviewers have called this a “philosophy book” and yes of course it is. It’s also more than philosophy and more than a regurgitation of Zen Buddhism. Island is the full counterpoint to Brave New World. I believe Island is Huxley’s absolute best work. It is brilliant, enlightening and humbling. It also gives a sense of hope- which is something all of us, I think, could use a bit more of right now.