Preview

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

Island

By: Aldous Huxley
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $24.49

Buy for $24.49

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

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
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

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

What listeners say about Island

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,017
  • 4 Stars
    364
  • 3 Stars
    213
  • 2 Stars
    116
  • 1 Stars
    81
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,128
  • 4 Stars
    290
  • 3 Stars
    117
  • 2 Stars
    34
  • 1 Stars
    23
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    888
  • 4 Stars
    301
  • 3 Stars
    199
  • 2 Stars
    112
  • 1 Stars
    88

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

56 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Tired of dystopian scifi stories?

If u want a picture of a what is the simplest form of scoeity, that is a utopian view without greed and conquest. This book uses the Buddhist tradition and nature to show what an isolated society can thrive. The last work of aldous Huxley before his famous medicated death, it show his vision of a dying utopian society u influenced by money and globalization. Tho the ending is chilling.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

That Moksha-Medicine is pretty sweet

I loved this book, I listened to it all in one go on a sunny afternoon and I'm definitely about to go through it a second time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Essential reading for 2024

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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding performance for an epic book

Outstanding performance for an epic book. Incredible. Is this enough words? Come on. This has to be 15 words.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully written and poignantly prescient

An adroitly perceptive journey as only A. Huxley can write through an elusive paradise that leads to shattered illusions and deeper truths that couldn’t be more relevant given today’s political turmoil. The reader does a fantastic job as well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Another

Didactic sleepy tract concerning a sad misunderstanding of Buddhism and an assertion of dreamy socialism.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Philosophy of What’s What as Utopian Social Theory

Like a nuclear age, psychedelic remix of Plato’s Republic + Symposium. Sometimes pedantic—but nevertheless beautiful and compelling. If you liked Doors of Perception, you’ll probably also enjoy this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!