A History of the Island

Summary

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.