Read A History of the Island By Eugene Vodolazkin Full Books Online in HD Quality

Monks devious and devout – and an age-defying royal pair – chronicle the history of their fictional island in this witty critique of Western civilization and history itself.

Eugene Vodolazkin, internationally acclaimed novelist and scholar of medieval literature, returns with a satirical parable about European and Russian history, the myth of progress, and the futility of war.

This ingenious novel, described by critics as a coda to his bestselling Laurus, 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: quests for power, betrayals, civil wars, pandemics, droughts, invasions, innovations, and revolutions. 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?

In the tradition of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, Julian Barnes’s A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant, Vodolazkin is at his best recasting history, in all its hubris and horror, by finding the humor in its absurdity. For readers 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.

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

A History of the Island

A History of the Island

More Books

Кадавры

Alexey Polyarinov

Aurul pisicii

Ioana Pârvulescu

They Flew: A History of the Impossible

Carlos M.N. Eire

Félix et la source invisible

Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt

To Go on Living: Stories

Narine Abgaryan

Orașul cu salcâmi

Mihail Sebastian

Copiii de pe Volga

Guzel Yakhina

Great Lent: Journey to Pascha

Alexander Schmemann

On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings

Maximus the Confessor

Петровы в гриппе и вокруг него

Aleksei Salnikov

A fost doar ciumă

Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Victimă fără chip (Fabian Risk, #1)

Stefan Ahnhem