From Constantinople to Idaho to an interstellar spaceship, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr traverses time and space. In many ways, this book reminds me of David Mitchell's works - a cast of characters across time and place but with the same themes recurring throughout and a circular approach leaving a cohesive singular message. For the survival of children, for the survival of books, for a lover letter to the power of stories and those who protect them, this will remain a memorable book for me.
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/12/cloud-cuckoo-land.html
Reviewed for NetGalley.
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/12/cloud-cuckoo-land.html
Reviewed for NetGalley.
Cloud Cuckoo Land is a masterpiece of a book about a book called Aethon's story. The setting is Constantinople in the 15th century with 13 year-old Anna who is an orphan. In a small town in present-day Idaho, Zeno, an octogenarian rehearses 5 children in a play adaptation of Aethon's story. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardship of the book, of the Earth, of the human heart. This book switches between these 3 time zones and can get confusing if you don't pay attention to the story. It's a book that you will either love it to be longer or hate it and wish it was shorter. If you love different kinds of genre then I believe you will love this book as I find it to be a mixture of all genres. It definitely will go down in book history as a book you should read before you die!
