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The World and All That It Holds

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About this listen

'This life-stuffed novel is Aleksandar Hemon’s masterpiece' - David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

The epic, cross-continental tale of a love so strong it conquers the Great War, revolution, and even death itself.

As the Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in Sarajevo one June day in 1914, Rafael Pinto is busy crushing herbs and grinding tablets behind the counter at the pharmacy he inherited from his father. It’s not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna, but it’s nothing a dash of laudanum, a summer stroll and idle fantasies can’t put in perspective.

And then the world explodes. In the trenches in Galicia, fantasies fall flat. Heroism gets a man killed quickly. War devours all that they have known, and the only thing Pinto has to live for are the attentions of Osman, a fellow soldier, a man of action to complement Pinto’s introspective, poetic soul; a charismatic storyteller and Pinto’s protector and lover.

Together, Pinto and Osman will escape the trenches and find themselves entangled with spies and Bolsheviks. As they travel over mountains and across deserts, from one world to another, all the way to Shanghai, it is Pinto’s love for Osman that will truly survive.

 20th Century Asia China Eastern Europe Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction World War I War

Critic reviews

A staggering work of beauty and brutality (Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize winning author of Shuggie Bain)
A tour de force. Hemon has given us a story of love and war like no other (Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire)
'Alexsandar Hemon's new novel is immense. ... It contains almost as much as its title promises. By turns lyrical and sardonic, it is as emotionally compelling as it is clever. I'll be surprised if I enjoy a novel more this year.'
A magnificent, ambitious masterpiece
A twisting, turning epic rooted in love in all its forms; an odyssey of statelessness; a haunted museum of history ranging from Sarajevo to Shanghai and Jerusalem . . . This life-stuffed novel is Aleksandar Hemon’s masterpiece (David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas)
Beguiling . . . Hemon is a master wordsmith and this novel contains multitudes
An explosive novel. Bursting with energy, wits, and insights, it’s an epic meditation on history, philosophy, and human conditions. Aleksandar Hemon once again proves himself to be one of our most innovative and invigorating novelists (Yiyun Li, author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers)
One of the finest novels I’ve ever read . . . A feat of unfettered literary bravura. In short, a masterpiece (Rabih Alameddine)
The irrepressible voice of “The World and All That It Holds” glides along a cushion of poignancy buoyed by wry humor.
'A powerful exploration of love, memory and world-shaking events'
An astoundingly expansive new novel from one of my all-time favorite writers . . . heartbreaking, thrilling . . . an amazing accomplishment (Jesse Eisenberg)
A potent story of love, war, and displacement... readers will delight in this sweeping epic
Powerful and beautiful... Hemon pulls no punches in his most ambitious novel to date
“The World and All That It Holds” would be an audacious title for a book by anybody except God — or Aleksandar Hemon. But this Bosnian American author will make you a believer.
A wandering epic of a novel . . . This is a book about language, and its medium is a rich linguistic stew . . . The historical-fictional illusion he has created is so engrossing, so generous in the abundant pleasures it offers the reader
An English-language writer of verbal agility and ethical finesse . . . Within this widescreen epic, he drills as piercingly as ever into the questions of language and freedom, choice and chance, that made the refugee a writer
Piercingly acute, and imbued with a sense of history – personal, emotional and world-transforming at the same time – which is as entertaining to read as it is devastating
The real miracle of “The World and All That It Holds” is that despite holding so much, we come to know the fragile joys of this one melancholy man so well that he feels written into our own past
All stars
Most relevant
Gripping yet sensitive. A huge Europen novel with a penchant for deep reflexivity and historical breath. Hamon belings tona vanishing tribe of writers who know how to tell a story yet take you to the depths of the big questions.
Kudos!

A masterpiece!

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Gripping, moving, important history. How we got here, how they got there, what has been endured. An historical novel of their times for ours. Atmospheric and beautifully narrated.

European journey

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This book is beautifully written and read. It is very moving in many parts despite the often harrowing content. That it seems to have been based on true events makes it more so.

A 20th century odyssey

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The audio includes so many revisions, recorded in a substandard studio, that it seriously mars enjoyment.

Good novel spoiled by poor production

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It was a delight to read this beautiful story woven with so many cultures. Apart from English, there is a smooth intertwining of languages and how naturally understood they are as listened to. As a Bosnian myself living abroad, every paragraph gave a familiar smell. A warm recommendation to all who like a good story and longs for home that does not exist anymore.

A warm recommendation to all who like a good story and longs for home that does not exist anymore

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