Carlo Acutis: Faith, Technology, and the Making of a Modern Saint

I’ll admit, I approached this audiobook with skepticism. Saint stories often feel either overly reverent or cloyingly inspirational, but *Carlo Acutis* sidesteps both traps. Saul Cross writes with a journalist’s eye for detail—like Carlo’s habit of signing emails *“I’ll see you in paradise”*—while Bill Schafer’s narration keeps the tone grounded. His voice has a slight rasp that suits the material; he doesn’t perform *as* Carlo (thank goodness) but channels the book’s blend of wonder and pragmatism. The production is clean, though I wished for more dynamic range in the quieter reflective passages—some moments felt flattened by compression. What surprised me most was the book’s focus on *process*. We see Carlo’s faith not as abstract devotion but as a series of *choices*: designing a website to catalog miracles at 14, offering his suffering for the Pope during chemo, even his playful debates with friends about video games vs. prayer. The critique? The final chapter rushes Carlo’s illness and death, glossing over the emotional weight of a teenager facing mortality. And while the tech angle is fresh, Cross occasionally overstates its novelty—plenty of saints engaged their eras’ tools (think St. Paul’s letters). Still, this audiobook lingers because it asks: *How do we make holiness tangible today?* For listeners tired of spiritual platitudes or curious about faith’s role in a digital world, it’s a bracing, imperfect gem.