By Henry Westen
July 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Island of the World is the saga of a young Croatian boy, raised in a tiny mountain village of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who is the only son of deeply religious and patriotic parents. At age 12 he is sent on an emergency errand to the nearest village, 15 kilometers away. Upon his return home, days later, he finds only the smoldering ruins of the village and all its inhabitants, including his own father and mother, who have been brutally murdered.
This horrid experience benumbs the boy. He enters into a spiritual and mental no-man’s-land, rendered unable to pray or to communicate with anyone. He then sets off on an aimless foot pilgrimage.
This is the beginning of a series of events that bring about a gradual healing and return to normal life. The boy joins a clandestine group that aims at freeing Communist Yugoslavia from the brutal and oppressive yoke of godless tyranny, and he marries Ariadne, the daughter of the leader of this group.
But this is only the beginning of the saga of Josip Lasta, our hero. With uncanny historical and political insights, author Michael O’Brien has created another narrative told in wonderful, often gripping, and frequently surprising and moving detail.
The work contains a great number of dramatic events, all in an historical setting beginning in the opening years of WWII, with various factions in former Yugoslavia at war with each other and with the German and Italian occupiers. We follow Josip’s wanderings, his settled life, a disastrous imprisonment and subsequent events in distinct episodes, which lead to an ever increasing ripening and maturing of his character and growth in faith. He is on a pilgrimage “passing through the arid valley, making a spring of it…. He goes from strength to strength and shall see the God of gods in Sion,” to paraphrase Psalm 83.
Josip’s greatest and most rewarding life experience comes in old age, when he comes to understand at last that throughout all his sufferings he has lived in a mysterious way with Christ. There is the sensible awareness of his union with the divine, all of which he humbly and wisely discusses with a priest, a director of souls.
This book comes highly recommended by eminent authors and scholars; you won’t, however, find it on the New York Times best seller’s list. But to me, this lack of approval by the popular media and literary gurus is its highest recommendation, for this magnificent, fascinating and life affirming story brings out facts and truths that are a challenge to our consciences and a spur to grow beyond our often shallow and individualistic lifestyles. It contains gems of wisdom and insight accessible to all.
The book is available from Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Island-World-Michael-D-OBrien/dp/1586172166