These chronicles receive commentary today from an elderly couple who are the islands former rulers. Prince Parfeny and Princess Ksenia are truly extraordinary: they are now 347 years old. Eyewitnesses to much of their islands turbulent history, they offer sharp-eyed observations on the changing flow of time and their peoples 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 Ecos The Name of the Rose, Julian Barness A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, and Kazuo Ishiguros 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.
These chronicles receive commentary today from an elderly couple who are the islands former rulers. Prince Parfeny and Princess Ksenia are truly extraordinary: they are now 347 years old. Eyewitnesses to much of their islands turbulent history, they offer sharp-eyed observations on the changing flow of time and their peoples 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 Ecos The Name of the Rose, Julian Barness A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, and Kazuo Ishiguros 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.