My quest to read books in as many places and times as possible has brought me to Eugene Vodolazkin’s (beautifully and thoughtfully translated by Lisa Hayden) curious hagiography/historical fiction novel, Laurus. Set in the last decades of the fifteenth century in the northern reaches of the Grand Principality of Muscovy, this book follows a man who strives all his life to atone for a terrible mistake in his youth. His quest will take him all over the states that predate the Tsardom of Russia, to Italy, and the Levant.
Born Arseny in a village near Beloozero (now Belozersk), our protagonist grows up learning the healing arts from his grandfather after his parents (and most of the village) dies of plague. Grandfather Cristofer firmly believes that all healing comes from god, though he is diligent about timely intervention and herbal medicine. After Cristofer passes away, Arseny struggles with his grief until he meets another plague orphan, Ustina. The pair fall in love as Arseny nurses her back to health, only for tragedy to strike about nine months later.
In another time and another place, the people in Arseny’s life would’ve been clamoring at him to see a therapist. (Arseny experiences plenty of clamoring all his life, though it’s from people who’ve heard that he can work miracle cures.) They’d at least try to talk him out of the blame he places on himself when Ustina dies. I couldn’t decide one way or another. On the one hand, how much could be done for a dangerous delivery in unsanitary conditions four hundred some odd years before germ theory is discovered? On the other, should Arseny have pushed aside his arrogance in his own abilities and gone for help from an experienced midwife at the first sign of trouble? And then, further, how on earth would it be possible to “make up for” any of his actions on that day? The answer in Arseny’s world is to devote oneself to god, to serving others, and to asceticism and hope for god’s mercy.
Tragedy never really leaves Arseny, though he does his best to try and leave it. Soon after the death of Ustina, Arseny leaves his grandfathers cabin and starts to wander. For the rest of his life, Arseny will talk to Ustina as he tries to figure out what it will take to make up for his mistakes with Ustina. He heroically doctors plague victims in every village he comes to. He tries the life of a Holy Fool in Pskov. Eventually, he is given a mission to travel to Jerusalem to pray for the soul of a plague victim, in the company of an Italian, Ambrogio Flecchia, determined to work out the date of the end of the world. Eventually, Arseny will spend out his old age and die at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.
Vodolazkin is astonishingly good at mimicking the sound and feel of a medieval tale. The supernatural frequently creeps in without comment from characters who expect the divine and infernal to mess with their lives. Vodolazkin add a few touches of timelessness via Ambrogio, whose obsession with time has led him to become slightly unstuck in time and can occasionally glimpse the future. Weird things happen all the time to Arseny and are always received as either a rebuke from god or as an object lesson. Laurus immerses its readers deeply in the mindset of medieval Russia and religion; it is intensely earthy and transcendent at the same time.
I just finished this treasure tonight! I found it to be as much a meditative philosophy book as it is a captivating novel. I came for the medieval Russian adventure and stayed for the inner world of a man with ghosts in his soul and a presence in all times of his life at once. 🌿