Island of the World Audiobook By Michael D. O'Brien cover art

Island of the World

A Novel

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Island of the World

By: Michael D. O'Brien
Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $29.95

Buy for $29.95

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

About this listen

Island of the World is the story of a child born in 1933 into the turbulent world of the Balkans and tracing his life into the third millennium. The central character is Josip Lasta, the son of an impoverished school teacher in a remote village high in the mountains of the Bosnian interior. As the novel begins, World War II is underway and the entire region of Yugoslavia is torn by conflicting factions: German and Italian occupying armies, and the rebel forces that resist them the fascist Ustashe, Serb nationalist Chetniks, and Communist Partisans.

As events gather momentum, hell breaks loose, and the young and the innocent are caught in the path of great evils. Their only remaining strength is their religious faith and their families. For more than a century, the confused and highly inflammatory history of former Yugoslavia has been the subject of numerous books, many of them rife with revisionist history and propaganda. The peoples of the Balkans live on the border of three worlds: the Islamic, the orthodox Slavic East, and Catholic Europe, and as such they stand in the path of major world conflicts that are not only geo-political but fundamentally spiritual. This novel cuts to the core question: how does a person retain his identity, indeed his humanity, in absolutely dehumanizing situations?

In the life of the central character, the author demonstrates that this will demand suffering and sacrifice, heroism and even holiness. When he is twelve years old, his entire world is destroyed, and so begins a lifelong Odyssey to find again the faith which the blows of evil have shattered. The plot takes the listener through Josip's youth, his young manhood, life under the Communist regime, hope and loss and unexpected blessings, the growth of his creative powers as a poet, and the ultimate test of his life. Ultimately this novel is about the crucifixion of a soul and resurrection.

©2009 Ignatius Press (P)2024 Ignatius Press
20th Century Christian Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_webcro805_stickypopup
All stars
Most relevant  
It was so heart wrenching at times both in good and bad ways. Excellent poems, too.

The wonderful use of language

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

This is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. The story is unapologetically Catholic and traces the life of a man who suffers the under socialist horrors of Tito's Yugoslavia. It provides an excellent opportunity to study a lesser known (at least in the west) genocide and it invites us to experience it at a deeply personal level rather than the impersonal statistics of genocide. Maybe most importantly it shows us the redemptive power of suffering from the Christian perspective and one can't read this book without feeling moved to develop a deeper prayer life and grow closer to Christ.

Some will not appreciate the narration but I believe the voices for each character are necessary in order to parse the back and forth dialog between characters. it took a little getting used to but ultimately I grew to appreciate it

Catholic storytelling at its best

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

The writing is excellent, the story compelling, the narration is distracting. The narrators various voices for characters are shrill, and over affected it pulls you out of the story. I would recommend just reading the book as opposed to listening.

Excellent story, distracting narration

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

I liked Joseph's change and ease with becoming like Christ.
At times the novel dragged, but I did enjoy a lot of the details! The life Joseph lead was unbelievable.

Joseph, a man and servant of God

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