This wasn't my favorite listen of the year - I struggled to get through it - starting and stopping, coming back to it and trying again for several months. It wasn't terrible, but it just didn't grab my attention like the description did. It might be one of those reads that you just have to be in the right kind of mood for, and I haven't been in that mood in awhile - to read about the ravages of war and loss and heartbreak. I do think the writing is good, and realized quickly that it's a slow moving story. I just didn't love this as much as I wanted to.

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
The story follows Rafael Pinto from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 to his death in 1949. The book follows the stories of his love and migration from Sarajevo to Shanghai.
The book skips time frequently, and with little indication. The story was filled with tales and stories that caused the main story to feel repetitive. It was difficult to keep up with what was happening between the large jumps in time and the stories that had no connection. Because of the twisted manner of storytelling, it is difficult to tell what I read.

THE WORLD AND ALL THAT IT HOLDS packed quite the punch, and I was so glad that I added this as one of my first reads of the new year. It was a compelling story, both raw and tender, as the author explores themes of wartime hardships, sexual assault, grief, and addiction.

I was so grateful to listen to the audiobook ALC, to help bring the story to life.

*many thanks to Macmillan Audio and netgalley for the gifted copy for review

I’m grateful for the opportunity to listen to this book via Netgalley, but I was disturbed by the narrator. His rough and limited voice and strong accent, combined with some odd pronunciations, were too much for a compelling listen for me. So I will read the book myself. No offense to the narrator, I’m sure others will enjoy this. This review does not pertain to the book itself.

The World and All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon (The Lazarus Project) is brutal, beautiful and an absolute masterpiece. I was riveted by the audiobook, the narration of which was expertly done and very authentic to the voice and tone of this piece. There are plenty of trigger warnings that would normally perhaps prevent me from picking this book up (lots of wartime violence--gore, torture, and sexual assault) but it is part of the reality of this world in the backdrop of the exceptionally tender and raw love story between the two MCs. It was difficult emotionally at times but worth it. A powerfully human novel that will stay with me a very long time. Thank you to MacMillan audio for the advanced listening copy.

I couldn't really follow this book. Oh well, it might work for others. I think there is probably better historical fiction.

I knew from the beginning that this book would destroy me.

This isn’t just a book, it’s art. It’s about the delicacy of each moment in our lives, it is about loss, war and grieving, and about the love and beauty we find in these moments. It’s about homes and places and the significance of the insignificance of everything around us. (Except for the times it is actually about the insignificance of what we find significant). Put more simply this novel is about, well, The World and All That It Holds.

The majority of the story focuses on Rafael Pinto, a man from Sarajevo who took over his father’s pharmacy shop after his passing. He isn’t the biggest fan of his new life in Sarejevo, but that’s okay because he is only there a short while before Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in his city and he gets shipped off to war. Pinto’s fantasy about returning to his old life remain through, past, and beyond the war, where he finds love in the charismatic storyteller, Osman. Through incredible hardship Pinto's heart beats for Osman. “When our love is strong, we can lie on the edge of a sword. Our we can lie on a vermin infested straw mat and avoid dying until the war is over and something else, something better, replaces it.”

The way Pinto, and many other soldiers, initially think of their place in the war as having two possible endings: death during war, or surviving and going home. But the latter is never the case for soldiers, is it? Especially in a war like World War I. As the novel carries on, and the novel does carry on far, far past Pinto’s time in the trenches, we see Pinto’s relationship with the concept of home change over time.

This story is painful and beautiful. It is a story about war so be prepared to experience first hand graphic descriptions of war, starvation, violence, grief, and addiction. It’s about how our lives and experiences shape us, and the delicacy of our memories and realities. It’s about how we are all a part of a story, and how one day every story will be forgotten.

I can give an overview of the emotional journey of this book by comparing an early quote to one towards the very end:

"There was no sense in fantasizing about different outcomes. Everything that happens is always the only thing that could happen. Everything before this moment leads to this moment."

“It is a common symptom of melancholy to keep imagining the past instead of the future… [T]he future feels both foreclosed and uncertain. Whereas the past is all there is, infinitely reproducible.”

I can give an overview of MY emotional journey reading this book through 2012 era gifs representing crying, screaming, etc

Do you ever just want to love a book and then you start reading and quickly realize it isn’t for you? I read the description of this one, and I read a few reviews like I always do and thought it would be a slam dunk for me. However, it was quickly obvious that this was not the case.

This is a love story between Rafael Pinto and Osman. Brought together by war, they fall in love. Pinto lives for the attention he gets from the Osman. Pinto is introspective and has a poetic soul, while Osman is his protector and lover. Together they escape the trenches, with their love keeping them going through countless perils.

To say this book is a complex love story is an understatement. It was a love story between two men at its core, but also a story of refugees, and family, and religion. The writing is well done and fantastic – but I just couldn’t get into it. I wanted to love Pinto and Osman so much, but everything just fell flat. This one was also gory at times.

This book also contains many phrases and words that are not English. For an audio this did not work for me. I also found the heavy accent of the narrator to be distracting when I normally love it.

This one was published Jan 24th. I recommend you read this one over listening to the audio as it may be easier to pick up on context cues.

Thank you, Macmillan Audio, (@macmillanaudio), NetGalley (@netgalley), for this ALC in exchange for this honest review.

I tried to get into this one but I could not make it past 10% of the audiobook. I'm not sure if it's the narrator or the author's writing style, but something was just not working for me. I may try picking this up again in the future as a Print copy.

Thank you Macmillan audio and Netgalley for my review audio copy.

Aleksandar Hemon’s epic new novel THE WORLD AND ALL THAT IT HOLDS is a love story between two Bosnian men, one Jewish and one Muslim, which begins on the battlefields of WWI and takes the reader on a breathtaking journey around the world.

Rafael Pinto, a young Jewish pharmacist from Sarajevo, witnesses first hand how Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated and soon finds himself in a trench with a rifle in his hand, surrounded by young men who all wonder whose war they are fighting. Nothing makes sense until Pinto meets Osman, a handsome Muslim soldier and a voice of reason in a mad world.

What follows is their story of tender love and gruesome war, but also a tall tale of escape, resilience, spies, ghosts, Bolsheviks, opium dealers, and adventures from the muddy trenches over the frozen tundra and mountains to Tashkent and through the Taklamakan Desert to Shanghai and back. Pinto and Osman’s epic journey is part picaresque, part lyrical meditation on displacement, as this odd but lovely couple will find and lose themselves and each other, again and again and again.

The audiobook can be challenging to follow as the plot loops through different decades, countries and snippets of languages, including the almost extinct Sarajevo Spanjol. As a language nerd, I was thrilled that Hemon tossed me into a sea of foreign languages and stories within stories. I also loved the wry humor that came across so well in the excellent narration by Aleksandar Mikic. I didn’t need to understand every word spoken (after all, neither did the characters), but instead let the story carry me around the world.

The audiobook narrator had his work cut out for him with all the different languages (German, Bosnian, Spanjol, Uyghur and more), but he narrated with passion and tenderness in a soft Balkan accent suitable for the text. (I believe the voice actor is either Bosnian or Macedonian.) It took me a while to figure out if I was hearing words in Spanish, French, Italian or Spanjol, but the linguistic disorientation worked for me. Still, having both the ebook and the audiobook together would be ideal for those who want to look up phrases.

*Audio quality: my audiobook version had some distracting sound quality issues. The volume and clarity often changed (as some sentences were evidently corrected and re-recorded) but I hope these are all sound editing issues that can be fixed.

An epic tale of star-crossed lovers, migrant caravans, forgotten history, lost languages and the long road home, this philosophical novel surprised and enchanted me. I think it will appeal to readers who loved What Strange Paradise by Omar Al Akkad and fans of David Mitchell and Salman Rushdie.

Many thanks to #MacmillanAudio and #NetGalley for an advance audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was heartbreakingly beautiful. There is love, loss, and found family in this 20th century historical fiction that takes plaice across Europe and Asia. The writing toes the line of being too wordy, otherwise I would have rated higher. I also think I would have enjoyed a physical or e book as the narrator had a thick accent.

This one is going to stay with me for a long time. It does so much more than give American readers the opportunity to see historical events of the 20th century from a different perspective. Intellectually, I appreciate the learning moments, but such emotional and psychological depth could have only been achieved by masterful artistry. I suggest that readers lean into the challenges of a sometimes non-linear plot line and shifts among languages. The payoff is worth it.

Thank you to Aleksandar Hemon; Farrah, Strauss, and Giroux; Macmillan Audio; and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

*Note on the audio version: the narration is effective and impactful. At times, the volume and recording quality seem to shift abruptly, perhaps indicating a space where an edit needed to be made.

I hate reviews that state “this book was not for me” but that’s how I felt about this one. It has so many glowing reviews, and the dialogue and characters were deep an nuanced, but I just wasn’t interested in what was happening.

The opening of this novel took by breath away. The author just gripped me with his writing and I could not stop reading. Hemon takes us on a trip from Sarajevo in June of 1914 to the war trenches of WWI, to Russia during the revolution and finally to Shanghai of 1932 being attacked by the Japanese and later 1937 as the city is occupied by Japan. Every perfect sentence brings surprise, delight and twists. This is a story of survival, at times violence, and above all love. Love between two men that endures the lifetime of the main character and helps him survive during the struggle times of mid 20th century. I got advance copies both in print and audio, which made the experience of reading this book wonderful. The audio narrator did a great job taking into account that there are some sentences written in languages other than English. Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and FSG for the advance copy.

Aleksandar Hemon gallops right up to the line dividing "perfect" from "overwritten" but he never steps over it. Every sentence is so lush and so rich. It took some getting used to. It was like falling in love when I didn't want to but in the end I had no choice. It's rococo writing. It's full of filigrees and flourishes. I fell in love with each wavy swirling sentence--the way each sentence always manage to fit in one more perfect clause before the period came along. I read this book in electronic ARC while also listening to the audiobook. I adored the narrator of the audiobook, Aleksandar Mikic--what a talent!--but I also loved reading the words on the page at the same time, so that I had a view of the hills and valleys of the sentences as they came along. I appreciated having both audio and print versions handy, as I read, where they could reflect and refract one another in my brain. This is rich writing. It required a few channels into my thoughts and feelings for me to fully engage with it.

There are so many specific scenes that took my breath away. So many varied moods. One aspect I particularly loved in the novel were the wrenchingly beautiful lovemaking scenes between men--scenes that are full of desire, but also, great gentleness. They were a little gauzy. There was a romantic sheen on the writing that fit the story so well and made me realize how rarely I've read scenes where two men get to be gentle and romantic with one another, vs having a more visceral physical experience on the page...and I thought it was great.

Note to the publisher: this audiobook has an ISBN that is not yet on Goodreads. When it appears I will post my review there for the audiobook as well as the e-book.

I am so thankful to Netgalley, Aleksandar Hemon, and Macmillan Audio for granting me Advanced Listener Access to The World and All That It Holds before its Publication Date of January 24, 2023. I was deeply moved by this book's historical premises, which has subsequently ushered me down the rabbit hole of hyper-fixation on WWI and the events that followed in World History.

The World and All That It Holds tells the fictional tale of two Jewish men turned refugees doing all they can to survive the chaos and antisemitism that plagued the world in the early 1900s. As the reader, we are walked through historical references to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, isolated moments from the trench depths, and even glimpses into the start of the Bolshevik revolution other class struggles to come.

I was upset about how my high school education taught me so little about the aftermath of WWI for those dilapidated and destroyed European nations. I took a World Civilizations course in high school, but it feels like I was only fed a curriculum involving the US’s stance and place in the war, and that, to me, feels a bit like propaganda. This scenario is why I love books and their power to inform the masses of true stories, cut out censorship and keep history accurate.