I liked Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See," but I was not over the moon about it as most readers were. I feel the same about this novel. It's beautifully written, sweeping and ambitious, for sure. But Doerr takes a long time to get where he's going, and I'm still not completely sure where that is. For readers who enjoy tomes and plots that circle closer and closer until all the threads connect, this novel will delight and awe. For those readers who balk at a 600+ page book, I'd proceed with caution. I do love a long read, but I just felt this one didn't leave me as satisfied as I would have liked.

Absolutely loved it!!

Prior to reading this book, I saw it being described as "transformative", "life-changing", and a "magnificent masterpiece". I'm ashamed to say when I first started reading it, I did not share these sentiments and, quite frankly, it was hard for me to get into this book initially. I was worried I wouldn't be able to finish it, but I am hear to say I was wrong! I fell into this book and zoned out, fascinated by this story! It truly is transformative!

We have five different points of view with five different plot lines that initially was hard for me to follow and become attached to. Once I was able to get a grasp on each person and their story and began to see how they are all weaved together, I became immersed and amazed with how they started coming together. So I advice just give it a little time. Once I stopped fighting it, trying to figure out how they are linked and just let the story take over, it became so good!

A touch of historical fiction, I am familiar with when it comes to Doerr, and a touch of science fiction, a genre I adore. But what I find so fascinating is how he was able to combine the two! And not just combine those two genres, but how he was able to write a story with past, present and future characters that flowed so well!

Anna and Omeir's storylines remained me of Follett's Kingsbridge series, which I absolutely adore, so I loved reading about them. Zeno was a fascinating character and I loved his story so much!
But Konstance, oh I enjoyed her story the most!

If you are a fan of Doerr and loved All The Light We Cannot See, know this isn't a historical fiction like it, but it still has the same Doerr's elements we loved where he weaves multiple storylines together with an amazing prose and I highly recommend you pick this book up! I'm so happy I read this book!

***Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book!

Anthony Doerr’s new novel, “Cloud Cuckoo Land,” is an amazing amalgamation of numerous genres. It is a beautifully constructed work about preservation of information and preservation of the land but also so much more. The well-developed characters have stories weaving together the past, the present and the future. It might take a bit of effort to get into the rhythm of the book but it is well worth the effort. The stories are so engrossing that I often wanted to skip chapters to discover what was happening with the characters in the different time periods. Doerr kept the chapters short and masterfully ended most of them with unresolved tension encouraging the reader to move ahead. This is a work that will generate great discussions. Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the free ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

This book contains beautiful depictions of how storytelling and adaptation can transcend all bounds of time and space. A truly beautiful piece of work! I look forward to publication date!

A soon as I heard that Doerr had a new novel coming out, I immediately logged onto NetGalley, was thrilled to see it was available to request, and did so. I jumped for joy when the approval email arrived in less than 48 hours! LOVED it. If you were wondering if it was possible for Doerr to follow up All the Light We Cannot See, rest assured that he did, and it's amazing. Every single character is compelling - I cared about all of them and wanted to know what would happen to each.

Isn't it wonderful to know that songs and stories are passed down through the ages, long after the written word is lost? Cloud Cuckoo Land is an interconnected story of three different timelines - all characters connected by an old Greek story. Each character, in their own way, believes this story saves them during a siege of some sort. I'm including the publisher synopsis, because otherwise I might write a treatise. And because I don't want to ruin the wonder of this novel by explaining the plot too much.

"Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a 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. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna’s will cross.

Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five 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. She has never set foot on our planet."

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

In this extremely ambitious, genre-shattering novel, the lives of 5 characters across hundreds of years are united by a single story of the same name translated from ancient Greek. Anna and Omeir live in 1450s Constantinople during a great siege. In the present day, troubled teenager Seymour and Vietnam veteran Zeno cross paths, and in the not-too-distant future, Konstance travels on a spaceship from Earth heading to a potentially habitable planet. The themes from the translated story “Cloud Cuckoo Land” have clear parallels with the stories of each character, one of the strengths of this book that gives it a very meta feeling.

It took me a VERY long time to feel invested in this book. The drastic jumps in time, as Doerr alternates between storylines, made it difficult to follow initially. Therefore, I found myself unexcited to keep turning pages. I was a lot more interested in the present day and future storylines, while I really didn’t care much for Anna and Omeir’s chapters. Frankly, there was enough information about each character to give each one their own book; I think more cuts would have been appropriate to make this book a little more accessible, given we’re already meeting 5 different characters in 3 different time periods. Additionally, the switches from essentially, historical fiction, to contemporary fiction, to science fiction, were disorienting. The reader will have to work to get something out of this book.

However, in the moments where the core themes shined through, the book was transcendent. Konstance’s story in particular, as a young girl who has never set foot on Earth and who must face some heavy existential truths, was moving. The connection between the present and future storylines was also an interesting twist, and both had truly epic conclusions. By about halfway through the book, these were the parts that really turned it around for me (and the reasons why I went for four starts instead of two or three).

So if readers can make it through the first half, I think they will end up loving what this book has to offer. The “package,” so to speak, won’t necessarily appeal to a wide audience, but with some time and attention, the twists and turns will ultimately keep readers turning pages.

I’ve been sitting on this review for over a week because it was so much to process. While the book wasn’t 100% perfect for me, it is 100% perfect for what it is and ultimately I loved it! This read is both long and dense and any rush in getting through will not do it any justice.

Doerr did something incredible by combining literary fiction, sci-fi, historical fiction, and a newfound fable into a cohesive whole. His short story penchant clearly influenced the short chapters, each with their own ambience and completeness despite being a part of bigger whole in their own story and their part in others. The power of both individuality and community, gratefulness and seeking more, and story writing and storytelling bring life to this century-spanning work of art as threads of lives separated by time, distance, background, and ability are woven together.

I struggled a little with how late the stories were brought together and hoped we’d have a more gradual sense of connecting. It made the endings a little rushed which was impressive given the page count, but ultimately the ending did bring everything together in an incredibly beautiful way!

The themes here scream to be talked about, and I was so excited to have some friends to chat with.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Out September 28th!

3.5 stars… maybe 4. I’m still undecided on how I really felt about this one. It was, at times, a little hard to follow or to see how everything was going to come together in the end, but overall it was good.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

This was one of my most anticipated reads after the beauty that was All the Light We Cannot See. Honestly it was a little difficult to get into. It definitely has an interesting premise, but it is a slow read, and I found it a bit challenging to sustain interest. It's a novel that you really will need to carve out time during your day for, but it's poignant, and I love that it's basically a love letter to libraries and librarians.

Cloud Cuckoo Land was exactly what I was hoping it would be. It has everything I loved about Doerr's other work - that signature dreamy tone and imagery while still feeling new and different. This book manages to find the perfect balance between something different and yet familiar. I often worry about reading something new from an author after a very successful book because follow ups tend to be either an attempt to recapture the magic of the previous book or a complete abandonment of that style and tone and this is neither of those things. This book feels like a Doerr novel but is also exploring new themes and this unique moment in time.

From the opening pages the story pulled me in with the variety of narrators and perspectives. I adore a story that captures events from a variety of angles and Doerr is a master of that. Each character's voice is unique and with shorter chapters it's easy to keep track of who we're following at any given time. It's a long book but there are no wasted pages. The story is engaging and so beautifully written.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is perfect for readers of Doerr's previous work, lovers of classics, anyone who enjoys the writing of Erin Morgenstern and Isabel Allende, and readers who want to be swept away from reality while still contemplating the current state of the world. Highly recommended.

I couldn’t wait to read this highly anticipated book, but i must admit it was a very difficult read. With the multiple characters and timelines it was often confusing. And if you put the book down for a few days, it was hard to get back into it and keep the thread alive. The fable that ran through the book attempted to unify the story, but it was still hard to stick with it. That said, it was beautifully written and I always felt I wasn’t appreciating or understanding the full meaning of the book. I think I will appreciate it more after I discuss it with others or my book club.

I have read 3 books by Anthony Doerr. All were VERY good. But none of them prepared me for what Doerr was really capable of: a three timeline novel that describes the challenges of Constantinople in 1453, present day life, and a future off the earth.

Omeir and Anna - on opposite side of the city walls during the siege of 1453

Seymour - teenage idealist during an attack at a public library

Konstance - on an interstellar ship bound for an exoplanet

Doerr states he was creating a tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness-with other species, with each other, with the ones who lived before us, and the ones who will be here after we're gone.

And that, Tony Doerr did..

5 stars

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC. I hadn't read the author's other blockbuster book, but this one was right up my alley. The stories weaved together beautifully and I was riveted equally to each narrative. Great settings and characters I really cared about. I will definitely recommend this to my patrons!

This unusual book is like nothing I’ve ever read before. The stories take place in three different time periods - the late 1400s, the present (around 1940s-2040s) and the distant future), all connected by an Ancient Greek myth about a man named Aethon. In the 1400s, two young adolescents, Anna and Omeir form an unlikely bond just after the siege of Constantinople when Anna escapes the city with a damaged ancient manuscript. In the present, the story follows Zeno, who spends much of his life translating the recently re-discovered copy of Aethon’s tale and Seymour, an emotionally disturbed young man who makes grave mistakes before learning how impactful the tale is to him. And in the future, Konstance spends a year of her life locked in solitude where she discovers the connection between her father and Zeno’s translation of Aethon’s story. I understand why some reviewers were disappointed in the length of the book and the somewhat confusing lack of connection in the beginning of the book but I found myself drawn into each story and how they came together to be very satisfying. I also understand that this book won’t be enjoyable for every reader’s taste. However, I would describe this book as an epic masterpiece. Only a gifted author like Anthony Doerr can put together a novel that is part historical fiction, part contemporary fiction and part science fiction/fantasy that incorporates Greek mythology with contemporary issues of climate change, LGBTQ relationships, domestic terrorism and more. And it works! He is also a master of great character development which is important to me.

All the Light I Cannot See was the kind of book that bubbles up once in a while in my thoughts out of nowhere. This new work by Anthony Doerr will also stay with me for quite a long time, if I am lucky. This is a book I will read again and again. I enjoyed every sentence. The story spans many centuries, several wars, and is held together by a simple story, passed down through the main characters. It’s a story about how life will find a way despite short odds. The Bosnian pine. The seeds that are carefully kept to endure an uncertain journey through space. The words on a page that will survive through several translations and the dual forces of nature and storytelling. Redemption, love, heroism. All the elements of a Greek tragedy are here. I highly recommend this uplifting and amazing story. Special thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Scribner for an advance copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr is as ambitious as it is long. At 640 pages, Doerr creates an elaborate narrative that changes between three different eras - near Constantinople in the 1400s, a small town in Idaho during the 20th and 21st centuries, and on the interstellar spaceship Arthos in the not-so-distant future. There were a lot of stories being told about different characters and it was hard to follow how and why Doerr switched between the different characters when he did between chapters and why. It took me a little while to understand that the beginning of each chapter had an excerpt of an entirely different story, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and that this separate story ultimately ties all the characters to each other across the centuries.

I found the novel descriptive, with some elegant elements, but overall it a little askew, mostly because it was a novel that was trying to fit into to many different genres all at the same time - historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. It's almost like Doerr couldn't decide what type of novel he wanted to write and threw three different books together. He would get you hooked onto the story of one character and then abruptly switch to another but not necessarily returning to the first. He had five different main characters, or six if you want to count the man from the Cloud Cuckoo Land story.

It is a beautiful novel with a lot going on, and makes you think about many past and current social and political issues. Overall, I think it is a book most people will enjoy but know that it is very different from his Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the Light We Cannot See. I would go in with an open mind and knowing that it will get a little confusing at times.

A true epic tale, Cloud Cuckoo Land takes us across the globe through time and space(?) with different narratives all connected by an ancient story. Lush prose and distinct characters make the different narratives stand apart, and each could have been expanded into it's book with full plots and casts.

When starting the book, I was immediately drawn in to the whimsy -- it reminded my a bit of The Starless Sea (one of my favorites of all time). The further we got into the book, the less whimsical this felt, but not in a bad way at all. It is very much a love letter to books and time and the intersection of these two things.

Zeno was absolutely my favorite and there were some truly beautiful lines in his chapters about life and memory. Some pacing issues towards the middle detracted from my enjoyment, but overall this was a great read and I'm sure it will be a hit this fall!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the chance to read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

I was afraid when starting this book that it would just be a collection of mediocre stories joined by their superficial connection to the lost manuscript that gives its name to the title. Ultimately, I thought that that connection was indeed pretty tenuous, but the stories ended up being much more engaging than I was expecting, and I raced through the book in just a couple of sittings. Overall, I’d say the book is much more style than substance, but I’d recommend as a beach or plane read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

'Cloud Cuckoo Land,' by Anthony Doerr (Scribner, Sept. 28, 640 pages, $30)

For a Pulitzer Prize-winning author to best one of the most beloved literary novels of our time is no easy task. Yet, Anthony Doerr, author of “All the Light We Cannot See,” does that here, in his third novel, “Cloud Cuckoo Land.”

Redemptive can be an adjective too freely loosed on works of literature, but “Cloud Cuckoo Land” earns that badge. Floating from the 15th century to, by the novel’s end, the year 2146, Doerr’s novel takes us from ancient Constantinople to a small town in present-day Idaho to a berth on an interstellar ship in the future. Tying this together is an ancient Greek manuscript connecting humanity’s past, present and future, centering on an original story of Aethon, a young shepherd who dreams of a wild series of adventures leading to paradise.

The early accolades for this book from reviewers are already filling the annals of online sellers and other cyberspace realty. They are not undeserved.

I hate to give a bad review but this book was beyond difficult to read. It is told in so many multiple viewpoints, that would have been hard enough to follow. But, there was such a dragging plot that never felt like it was going anywhere, it made me put the book down multiple times. I decided to trudge through because I loved All the Light We Cannot see...unfortunately, I felt exactly the opposite about this one.