Play Audiobook Sample
The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko: A Novel Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
The Fault In Our Stars meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Seventeen-year-old Ivan Isaenko is a life-long resident of the Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children in Belarus. For the most part, every day is exactly the same for Ivan, which is why he turns everything into a game, manipulating people and events around him for his own amusement. Until Polina arrives. She steals his books. She challenges his routine. The nurses like her. She is exquisite. Soon, he cannot help being drawn to her and the two forge a romance that is tenuous and beautiful and everything they never dared dream of. Before, he survived by being utterly detached from things and people. Now, Ivan wants something more: Ivan wants Polina to live. This program features a bonus interview with the author.
Download and start listening now!
“[The] interactions are seasoned with humor, wit, and astute observation, and the hospital itself is as full a character as Ivan and Polina. What’s more, despite the presence of a corrupt health care bureaucracy, the story highlights the ways random acts of kindness can illuminate individual lives and make the seemingly unbearable tolerable, if not wholly acceptable. An auspicious, gut-wrenching, wonderful debut.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Quotes
-
“Compelling, intelligent, moving. The love story is executed with unflinching honesty and dark humor. A masterful novel.“
— Graeme Simsion, New York Times bestselling author -
“Comic and staggeringly tragic, often both in a single sentence…A grittier, Eastern European, more grown-up The Fault in Our Stars.”
— Eowyn Ivey, New York Times bestselling author -
“Soviet-style medical ethics or lack thereof frame an intimate story.”
— Library Journal -
“The voice of seventeen-year-old Ivan Isaenko will grab you from the first page of Stambach’s enthralling debut novel.”
— BookPage -
“Stambach’s surprising, empathetic novel takes on heavy themes of illness, suffering, religion, patience, and purpose, with a balanced mix of humor and heart.”
— Publishers Weekly
Awards
-
A BookPage Top Pick for August 2016
-
Winner of ALA Alex Awards Winner (Adult for Young Adults), 2016
The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About Scott Stambach
Scott Stambach lives in San Diego where he teaches physics and astronomy at Grossmont and Mesa colleges. He also collaborates with Science for Monks, a group of educators and monastics working to establish science programs in Tibetan Monasteries throughout India. He has written about his experiences working with monks of Sera Jey monastery and has published short fiction in several literary journals including Ecclectica, Stirring, and Convergence.
About Dan Bittner
Dan Bittner is an actor and voice talent and winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards for audio narration. He has starred on stage and on the screen, in movies such as Men in Black, Adventureland, and the Producers: The Movie Musical. He has also appeared onstage as Macbeth and Sherlock Holmes in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.