Reading Schedule for "Laurus"

Plus some links to get you acclimated

Although it’s just ten years old, Eugene Vodolazkin’s novel, Laurus, has garnered something of a legendary reputation. It’s a true cult classic, spoken of with reverence and awe by the people who love it—like our very own Heidi White and Tim McIntosh, of course. But it’s also a bit mystifying for many people considering the story’s unique voice and somewhat esoteric subject matter, to say nothing of matters of translation. All of this makes it a perfect novel for Close Reads and we are excited to chat about it with you over the next seven weeks.

The reading schedule is below, but if you would like to learn about the book a bit, here are a few essays worth checking out:

• In Plough, Nathan Beacom writes that Laurus “tells the story of a medieval plague doctor named Arseny, whose life shows us how our lives overflow into one another, and how suffering and trouble can be an occasion for approaching our highest happiness: communion.”

• In The New Yorker, Ken Kalfus wrote that “the faith of Vodolazkin’s holy fools is neither ecstatic, like many forms of Western Christianity, nor hierarchical, like Eastern Christianity, nor scholarly, like Judaism. Although the Greek-derived word doesn’t appear in “Laurus,” Arseny appears to embrace “Hesychasm,” the Byzantine religious movement in pursuit of inner peace.”

• At “On Art and Aesthetics,” Tulika Bahadur wrote that “the novel is constructed in the style of saint’s biography or vita. It is like the written form of a certain type of Orthodox iconographic art that has the scenes from the life of a holy figure surrounding them.”

• And in The Conciliar Post, Creighton McElveen wrote that “the narrative itself, with its masterful bending of time and space, sings with sacramental glory.”

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Reading Schedule

The following dates are the Mondays on which the episode’s will go live on the various podcasting apps, not when we record them, which can vary. This might impact whether we can address your feedback and questions on any given episode.

Week 1 (August 1): Pages 3-53
Week 2 (August 8): Pages 53-109
Week 3 (August 15): Pages 109 - 180
Week 4 (August 22): Pages 183-239
Week 5 (August 29): Pages 239 - 387
Week 6 (September 5): Pages 391 - 462
Week 7 (September 12): Q&A episode

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Alternative Book Covers

There aren’t many covers to share, but here is the German cover:

Here is the audiobook cover:

And here is a Russian edition, but I haven’t been able to figure out if its the first edition:

Can’t wait to dig in and to hear what you all have to say about this modern classic. Until then, happy reading!