Laurus -

Eugene Vodolazkin

Oneworld Publications

2016

384 páginas

12h 48m

ISBN-13: 9781780748719

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.

Resenhas (1)

5 (Perfeito)

O melhor livro que eu li da última década

Laurus é uma mistura inesperada e encantadora de realismo mágico e iconografia ortodoxa. No centro desse "ícone" existe Arseny, um curandeiro, peregrino e santo tolo na Rus' do século XV. Possuindo quatro nomes diferentes ao longo do livro, a vida de Arseny se parece com um mosaico, onde cada peça é distinta e desconexa quando observadas de perto mas que mostram uma imagem única e um propósito quando vistas de longe. É um livro profundo e poético. Que explora de forma criativa conceitos como o amor, a devoção, a morte, a fé e principalmente o tempo. A forma como o autor brinca com o tempo é de cair o queixo. Até mesmo fora da história. O texto é sentido como algo escrito séculos atrás, com uma escrita arcaica misturada com termos atuais, a cada página você fica em dúvida se esse livro é de 5 ou 500 anos atrás e isso é feito de forma sensacional, que não atrapalha e nem dificulta a leitura.
Laurus é uma leitura maravilhosa, que me ensinou muita coisa e que rapidamente se tornou um dos meus livros favoritos. Infelizmente ainda não possui uma tradução para o português (dez/2021) mas espero que isso logo mude e o público brasileiro possa aproveitar esse livro sensacional também!

Abaixo algumas das minhas frases preferidas do livro, na edição que li (tradução de Lisa Hayden para o inglês):

"I am going to tell you something strange. It seems ever more to me that there is no time. Everything on earth exists outside of time, otherwise how could I know about the future that has not occurred? I think time is given to us by the grace of God so we will not get mixed up, because a person's consciousness cannot take in all events at once. We are locked up in time because of our weakness.
Does that mean you think the end of the world already exists, too? asked Arseny.
I am not ruling that out. Of course death of individual people exists, and is that not, really, a personal end of the world? In the long run, history over all is just a part of personal history."

"You know, O friend, any meeting is surely more than parting. There is emptiness before meeting someone, just nothing, but there is no longer emptiness after parting. After having met someone once, it is impossible to part completely. A person remains in the memory, as a part of the memory. The person created that part and that part lives, sometimes coming into contact with its creator. Otherwise, how would we sense those dear to us from a distance?"

"Your trouble is that reaching final conclusions just isn't your thing. You're afraid the decision you make will deprive you of further choice, so that paralyzes your will."

"Each of us repeats Adam's journey and acknowledges, with the loss of innocence, that he is mortal. Weep and pray, O Arseny. And do not fear death, for death is not just the bitterness of parting. It is also the joy of liberation."