A Signed First Edition Club Recommendation
“It is a rare feat to attain the critical and commercial success achieved by Anthony Doerr’s 2014 novel, All the Light We Cannot See. With the announcement of his new book, Cloud Cuckoo Land, the anticipation and suspense began: could he do it again? The answer is in, and it is a resounding ‘Yes!’ Doerr’s latest novel gives us three alternating narratives, and a fourth, ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land,’ a novel-within-a-novel written by Greek philosopher Diogenes. (Diogenes of course existed, but Doerr invented the text.) In each of the three narratives—set in the fifteenth century, the present day, and the near future—young people encounter Diogenes's manuscript which follows Aethon, a shepherd who dreams of escaping to a paradise in the sky. The masterful way Doerr intertwines their stories is what Kirkus’s starred review called ‘one of the many narrative miracles worked by the author as he brings a first-century story to its conclusion in 2146. As the pieces of this magical literary puzzle snap together, a flicker of hope is sparked for our benighted world.’ The power of stories has rarely been so brilliantly realized.”
Publisher Scribner
Publication Date 2022-09-27
Section New Titles - Paperback / Fiction / All Staff Suggestions / Carole H.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9781982168445
On the New York Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks * A New York Times Notable Book * A Barack Obama Favorite * A National Book Award Finalist * Named a Best Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, and many more
“If you’re looking for a superb novel, look no further.” —The Washington Post
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, comes the instant New York Times bestseller that is a “wildly inventive, a humane and uplifting book for adults that’s infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences” (The New York Times Book Review).
Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of recent times, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope, and a book.
In the 15th century, an orphan named Anna lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople. She learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds what might be the last copy of a centuries-old book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the army that will lay siege to the city. His path and Anna’s will cross.
In the present day, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno rehearses children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege.
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.
Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders whose lives are gloriously intertwined. Doerr’s dazzling imagination transports us to worlds so dramatic and immersive that we forget, for a time, our own.
