Laurus - Eugene Vodolazkin

[goodreads]

Title: Laurus
Author: Eugene Vodolazkin
Genre: Historical fiction, Christian
Rating: 3/5
# pages: Audiobook ~13hrs
Date read: March, 2022

It is the late fifteenth century and a village healer in Russia 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.


Not entirely sure it was the right decision to 'read' this as an audiobook. There were several times where I would have liked to flip back and reread passages (especially when he started skipping around in time - that part really threw me at first), so I'm pretty sure I missed stuff along the way.

I liked the beginning, and the atmosphere reminded me quite a bit of both "Pope Joan" and "Physician" which are two of my favourite historical novels, but I wasn't entirely comfortable with how he treated Ustina, and while I found his experiences as a holy fool interesting, this was also the point where the author decided to start treating time as inconsequential, and I couldn't always figure out exactly what happened when.

But it was quite a departure from my normal reading habits, and I appreciated being pushed out of my comfort zone like this.