Laurus

Eugene Vodolazkin

Sep 2017 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by James Anderson Foster

5.0

3 reviews

Audiobook

13 hr 17 min

Unabridged

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About this audiobook

It is the late fifteenth 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. Laurus's travels take him from the Middle Ages to the Plague of 1771, where as a holy fool he displays miraculous healing powers, to the political upheavals of the late-twentieth century. At each transformative stage of his journey he becomes more revered by the church and the people, until he decides, one day, to return to his home village to lead the life of a monastic hermit-not realizing that it is here that he will face his most difficult trial yet. Laurus is a remarkably rich novel about the eternal themes of love, loss, self-sacrifice, and faith, from one of Russia's most exciting and critically acclaimed novelists.

Ratings and reviews

5.0

3 reviews

About the author

An expert in Old Russian literature, Eugene Vodolazkin has worked in the department of Old Russian Literature at Pushkin House since 1990. His debut novel, Solovyov and Larionov, was shortlisted for the Andrei Bely Prize and The Big Book Prize.

James Anderson Foster has narrated audiobooks for a variety of publishers, across nearly all genres-both fiction and nonfiction. In 2015, he was a finalist in three categories for the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences Voice Arts Awards (Mystery, Science Fiction, and Fantasy).

Lisa C. Hayden's translations from Russian include Eugene Vodolazkin's Solovyov and Larionov, The Aviator, and Laurus, which won the Read Russia Award in 2016 and was also shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize along with her translation of Vadim Levental's Masha Regina. She lives in Maine.

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