
Island of the World
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Kevin O'Brien
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 PressListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Michael O'Brien presents a thrilling apocalyptic novel about the condition of the Roman Catholic Church at the end of time. It explores the state of the modern world, and the strengths and weaknesses of the contemporary religious scene, by taking his central character, Father Elijah Schäfer, a Carmelite priest, on a secret mission for the Vatican which embroils him in a series of crises and subterfuges affecting the ultimate destiny of the Church.
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An end times story for Catholics and all!
- By Lindsey Pena on 03-25-25
By: Michael O'Brien
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The Sabbatical
- A Novel
- By: Michael D. O'Brien
- Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Whitfield is looking forward to a sabbatical year of peace and quiet, gardening in his backyard, and tinkering with what he calls his latest "unpublishable book". As the year begins, he is drawn by a series of seeming coincidences into involvement with a group of characters from across Europe, including a family that has been the target of assassination attempts by unknown powers. During his journey to Romania, the situation in which he finds himself becomes more sinister than it first seemed.
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Classic O’Brien!
- By Saved by Grace on 03-11-22
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The Father's Tale
- A Novel
- By: Michael O'Brien
- Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
- Length: 35 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Canadian bookseller Alex Graham is a middle-age widower whose quiet life is turned upside down when his college-age son disappears without any explanation or trace of where he has gone. With minimal resources, the father begins a long journey that takes him away from his safe and orderly world for the first time.
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Great story despite the narration
- By Stan on 09-13-23
By: Michael O'Brien
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The Lighthouse
- By: Michael D O'Brien
- Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Ethan McQuarry is a young lighthouse keeper on a tiny island, the rugged outcropping of easternmost Cape Breton Island on the Atlantic Ocean. A man without any family, he sees himself as a silent vigilant, performing his duties courageously year after year, with an admirable sense of responsibility.
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A great Michael D O’Brien story terribly read.
- By David on 05-26-21
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Laurus
- By: Lisa C. Hayden - translator, Eugene Vodolazkin
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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It is the late 15th century and a village healer in Russia called Laurus is powerless to help his beloved as she dies in childbirth, unwed and without having received communion. Devastated and desperate, he sets out on a journey in search of redemption. But this is no ordinary journey: it is one that spans ages and countries, and which brings him face-to-face with a host of unforgettable, eccentric characters and legendary creatures from the strangest medieval bestiaries.
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Speechless
- By Yixiao on 11-27-17
By: Lisa C. Hayden - translator, and others
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Ruth
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Eve Matheson
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The orphaned heroine Ruth, apprenticed to a dressmaker, is seduced by wealthy Henry Bellingham who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. Their affair causes her to lose her home and job to which he offers her shelter, only to cruelly abandon her soon after. She is offered a chance of a new life though shamed in the eyes of society by her illegitimate son. When Henry reappears offering marriage she must choose between social acceptance and her own pride.
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Fallen Woman Finds Redemption
- By Susan on 12-06-12
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Into Thin Air
- The Arctic Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Orjan Karlsson
- Narrated by: Marston York
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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When 19-year-old Iselin Hanssen disappears during a run in a popular hiking area in Bodø, Northern Norway, suspicion quickly falls on her boyfriend. For investigator Jakob Weber, the case seems clear-cut, almost unexceptional, even though there is some suggestion that Iselin lived parts of her life beneath the radar of both family and friends. But events take a dramatic turn when another woman disappears in similar circumstances - this time on the island of Røst, hundreds of miles off the coast, in the wild ocean.
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Torture porn
- By Cat L. on 03-21-25
By: Orjan Karlsson
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Boudicca
- A Novel
- By: P. C. Cast
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In Roman-occupied Britain, the Iceni tribe crowns an extraordinary new queen. Tall and flame-haired, Boudicca is devoted to Andraste, the Iceni’s patron goddess, known for her raven familiar, her fierceness and her swirling blue tattoos. Boudicca and her two young daughters will carry the tribe forward in dangerous times. Roman tax collector Catus Decianus, expecting weakness in a female ruler, launches a devastating attack on the tribe’s stronghold. Boudicca and her family barely survive—but they refuse to bend the knee.
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Very well written.
- By Sebee on 03-28-25
By: P. C. Cast
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Behold a White Horse
- Kingdom Come, Book 1
- By: Mark Goodwin
- Narrated by: A.W. Miller
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Colonel Silas Ford has everything he could want: a beautiful wife, a successful career as a fighter pilot, and a contented life. But his world is about to come crashing down. When failing eyesight grounds him, Silas is reassigned to the Pentagon’s enigmatic All-Domain Anomalies Resolution Office, tasked with investigating Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or UAP. As a seasoned pilot, Silas has encountered aircraft that defy modern technology and the laws of physics, transforming his skepticism into a reluctant belief in extraterrestrial life.
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Wow!!
- By seasprite on 02-01-25
By: Mark Goodwin
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The Resurrectionist
- By: A. Rae Dunlap
- Narrated by: Tom Kiteley
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Portrait of the Medical Student as a Young Body Snatcher. Yet I must insist that in the end, this is not a story about Death. It is perhaps a Life story, or even—yes—a Love story. It is the story of how I clawed my way from the decay of a crumbling legacy into the modern era of Reason and Science. It is the story of how I escaped the prison of archaic superstition to the freedom of enlightenment. It is the story of how a rose can blossom from even the bloodiest soil, of how light can grow from shadow, how love can grow from despair.
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Feels like ChatGPT or AI
- By Huf on 02-15-25
By: A. Rae Dunlap
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Last Twilight in Paris
- By: Pam Jenoff
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before, when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe—and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war. Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss Ian, with whom she shares a romantic history.
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Not Her Best!
- By M. Ryder on 02-20-25
By: Pam Jenoff
What listeners say about Island of the World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jon Williams
- 03-03-25
Excellent story, distracting narration
The writing is excellent, the story compelling, the narration is distracting. The narrators various voices for characters are shrill, over affected, and border on comically bad, it pulls you out of the story. I would recommend just reading the book as opposed to listening.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-04-25
Catholic storytelling at its best
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
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