1-Star DNF - "I Did Not Like It" - because of unsatisfactory narration.Audiobook - 11:12 Hours - Narrated by Peter HoskingListened to: 00:59 Hours - Balance: 10:13 Hours.I remember reading this as a paperback book sometime in the 1960s. Encouraged by the 5-Stars enjoyment of listening to "The Conclave by Robert Harris" in May 2021, I thought "The Shoes of the Fisherman", by Australian author Morris West, might be an ideal follow-up. The election of a new Pontiff is a supreme event that usually

"The Shoes of the Fisherman" is a book from the 1960s by Morris West, and it was a good one. It is considered the first volume of what's been dubbed his "Vatican Trilogy." In this tale, a new Pope is elected, and the one the College of Cardinals elects is a Russian Cardinal and the youngest of their group. All makes for an interesting setting.Given the book is from the 1960s, the Cold War becomes a natural theme throughout; given that the new Pope is Russian, the interplay is wonderful. As a new...

Excellent Cold War study from a different angleA fictional study of life during the Cold War from a different point of view, the Catholic Church. Everybody has read fiction and non-fiction about the Cold War, but nobody has looked at a group committed to peace and given a view from that point of view. It’s an interesting read and well done.

This book was fantastic!!

The book I just read was a paper back, published in May of 1964. There was a movie made of this story that I saw in the late 60's.When I first started reading the book I fully expected it to track somewhat closely to the movie. Not so.The book story line begins with a new pope from behind the iron curtain. This brings with it some special challenges as you can imagine. The development of the new pope Lakota has to face the daunting job of being a pope during the height of the cold war. The story...

Interesting view into the inner workings of the Vatican. It's very reflective of the typical bureaucracy weighed down by people too old to move with the times and so have lost touch with their essential purpose. The book's a little dry and drawn out in spots with old school type writing but a good read nevertheless.

Moments of crisis - in spirit, in thought, in love, in action - populate this book and Morris West does not shirk from giving his characters hard things to think about, and hard things to do, as well as the hard consequences of their actions. Ostensibly this is about the first few months of a new pope, but his dealings with his torturer who is now Russian premier, a woman who is wandering aimlessly until she finds herself, a puppet politician controlled by his aunt and his love affairs with the

Reading it was a chore. Only did so because I had an 11 hour flight and no other book. How about a plot?

Profound on many levels, this book is amazing. Although written in 1963, it predicts a Ukrainian Pope named Kiril Lakota who suffered much under the Communist system, envisions a worldwide, peace-making role for the papacy, anticipates traveling to Marian apparition sites, and is deeply spiritual. Does this remind you of anyone? Even the name Karol Wojtyla and the Eastern-block location are eerily close. I wonder what Morris West thought when Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła) became pope? I wond...

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it is inspiring and well written and I am glad I read it. On the other hand it has not held up well. It is obvious that the author intended it to be inspiring as well as a serious novel about the papacy and the Church. However, it was published in 1963 while John XXIII was pope. The Church and the papacy it describes is much changed so that the internal agony of the main character as well as others is pretty irrelevant. I also have to

Almost every year from 1940 to 1963, there has been at least one Christian novel on the Top 10 Bestseller list. The Shoes of the Fisherman took the #1 spot in 1963. It is the story of a Pope, how he was chosen, and what he faced in trying to keep the Catholic Church relevant in the postwar, communist influenced Cold War era. Kiril Lakota, Ukrainian Russian, victim of torture in the gulags, becomes Pope Kiril I.According to the Author's Note in the front of the book, "This is a book set in a fict...

"The Shoes of the Fisherman" had only been available for two years when my advanced literature class was obliged to read it in 1965. I was a senior, attending a Roman Catholic seminary, so it came as no great surprise that this book would be required reading.Reluctantly, I started to read; fully expecting it to be a pious propaganda piece for the Catholic Church and quite boring as well. I was wrong on both counts.This story of a young Russian Cardinal being elected Pope turned out to be inspira...

Read and enjoyed this years ago (before the movie). Current readers may have a little trouble understanding why a Russian pope would have had such impact (prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and election of John Paul II).

I read this book for college English 50 years ago. I revisted it in anticipation of the upcoming conclave. Amazing how things haven't change to a great degree from when this was published. Still trying to get the church to connect with the common man and divorce itself from pomp and circumstance. Still a worthwhile read fifty years later.

I really enjoyed this book. The combination of philosophical internal discussions from the highest seat in the Catholic church and the everyday worries of a middle-aged man set in the midst of the cold war was brilliant. When you think that this was written just a few years before the Cuban crisis, it shows a clear insight to the tension at the time. In light of the resent appointment of Pope Francis, it is particularly interesting to read about the Jesuits and the development of the role of the...

I never thought I would read a book like this but I’m glad I did. I am part of a minority group so I expected some bashing but it was actually gentle and kind. I sometimes have to remind myself that some people are just trying to be the best that they can be despite our differences.Purely fictional but I liked the main Pope character. He sounds like a good guy. He had an interesting background and perspective. The plot was probably the downfall. There just wasn’t enough happening and there was a...

Utopia, but that's a nice thing from time to time.

In the past, I have seen the movie adapted from this book but has never read it until now. It was insightful into the life of a pope and the challenges he faced. The book is set in the early 1960's so the time period is during the "Cold War" this is in the underlying story and a struggle for the pope in the book.

West is without a doubt a superb writer, however I found The Shoes of The Fisherman to be a great dissapointment. In spite of the fact that most of the reviews I have read higly praise the book, it never really got to me. The concept seems quite interesting at first: an unknown russian, cardinal Kiril Lakota is elected pope. After being held prisioner for quite a few years, he steps up to lead millions of people around the globe in a new world which he basically has knowledge of only from his ye...

I enjoyed this old novel (it came out in 1963) about the Vatican and a new, young Pope from an Eastern block country who shakes things up in Rome. The author was an Australian, and in his novels he managed to predicted the Papacy of John Paul II fifteen years before it happened, as well as the retirement of Pope Benedict decades before it took place. It was interesting for me to read about the concerns of the Catholic Church on the eve of Vatican II (the novel actually came out on the day Pope J...