Imaginative and ambitious, CLOUD CUCKOO LAND is testament to the transcendent power of stories. It is a truly unique novel by @Anthony Doerr, author of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE (one of my all time favorites).

Doerr is a masterful storyteller, but he takes his time within these 640 pages. This is an innovative story that you’ll need to settle in with. If you’re in the mood for a breezy read, this isn’t it.

What the novel lacks in brevity, it makes up for in brilliance. Doerr seamlessly weaves together three storylines that at first glance seem wildly unrelated: 1400s Constantinople, present Day Idaho, and a spaceship in the distant future.

Cloud Cuckoo Land highlights the threads that connect humanity over centuries. In that spirit, I believe this novel is meant to be read in community. Don’t go at this one alone--it begs to be thoughtfully discussed.

RATING: 4.5/5 (rounded up)
PUB DATE: 9/28/21

A big thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for an advanced electronic copy of this novel.

I received this book via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


Anthony Doerr has been an author I’ve enjoyed for a long time. All of his published works are unique and beautifully written and diverse in storytelling composition. This was no different.

I did love the premise of Cloud Cuckoo Land surrounding libraries and mysterious books of legend but I did find it took awhile to really get into the book and it’s quite hefty at over 600 pages.

Multiple points of view is always a format I enjoy in reading but I did struggle to keep up with them all due to the enormity of the book and how fast chapters changed. A few less points of views with longer chapters would have flowed better.

I wouldn’t say I was blown away by this book like I have his other works but it was still worth a read because of his characterizations and the development of the stories he writes.
I would give it 3.5 /5 due to the overall length and the odd ending that left me a bit unsatisfied

I had really hoped this would be the best book I have read this year!. I had read so many wonderful reviews and I loved Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. Well, what a disappointment. First, it started out so wierd, then I couldn't get going, so I just put the book down and didn't finish it. Hope everyone has better luck than I did.

I can become fatigued by lengthy, beautiful prose, but I don’t feel that way when I’m reading Anthony Doerr. As a huge fan of All the Light We Cannot See, I knew immediately that Cloud Cuckoo Land was a book I would not want to miss. His book was long, and took effort (but in a good way). The storylines were different people, different times, different moods, and touched different genres.
Cloud Cuckoo Land is not a beach read, but I enjoyed it and am glad I took the time for Doerr’s work.

Thanks to Net Galley and Scribner for the opportunity to read Anthony Doerr's gorgeous new novel. I was fearful that it might be a bit of jumble, albeit a jumble filled with splendid prose, because of the multiple time frames and characters the author presents, But no, I was completely drawn in and finished it in a few days. Thank goodness I was on vacation because I could not put this book down. Despite the author's honest depiction of brutality and pain across the centuries, I felt hopeful that the human connection that weaves the characters together here will continue in our future.
I so appreciated the author's love of libraries and books that shines through in every chapter of this wonderful volume.

The concept of tracking a single, ancient story, being transcribed over hundreds of years was really unique to me and I enjoyed reading the story parsed out at the beginning of each chapter. Moving back and forth thru time from 1439 to the future, you learn about the Diogenes folios from 5 characters who are impacted by the story in different and profound ways. It's a slow-burn of a read, but enjoyable overall.

Thank you to #Scribner and #NetGalley for this digital arc. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Thanks to Netgalley , Anthony Doerr, and Simon & Schuster for an advanced e-edition.

I must admit that I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I say that because I am not usually not very enthusiastic about the individual pieces of this book, as it was described to me briefly before I started. It is part historical fiction, part science fiction, part fantasy that share the common thread of a Greek Mythology text. These parts are then all developed at as entirely separate stories with several of them occurring in widely disparate time periods. However, because of the author's exceptional talent at quickly sucking me into having great empathy for each of the unique characters I was pleased to read each short chapter and then abruptly jump to another place and time and catch up with what my other favorite characters were doing. This format would simply not have worked (for me, anyway) if the author's individual characters and stories were not so immediately engrossing. In the end, all things come together for a satisfying conclusion.

I like how the plots from the different years and places (1400's Constantinople; 1950s-2020's Idaho; future on a spaceship) came together in this book. I liked the Idaho portions of the book a lot more than the other two. But this book had a lot of words - a whole lot of words - and they seemed to not all be necessary for me to enjoy/understand the book. I started skimming after about 50 pages and I don't think I missed much. For that reason I can't give this book higher than 3 stars. I

Cloud Cuckoo Land is amazing! What could have been a book with three separate stories creating confusion was a book masterfully crafted. It contains so many stories, so much angst and beauty spanning the past, present and future. I will definitely recommend this book to my book clubs.

I really LOVE Anthony Doerr’s writing, so I was excited when I was awarded an ARC from Netgalley/Scribner of Cloud Cuckoo Land in exchange for my honest review. I expect that this book will be a huge bag of mixed reviews, because it is a bit complicated. I, however, am awarding this 4 stars (probably rounded up, but nonetheless, still 4). It will be out for all to read on September 28th, 2021.

The story of Cloud Cuckoo Land shifts between the points of view of five different characters and takes place in:
- The Past (1400s): Omeir’s and Anna’s stories,
- The Present (2020, with flashbacks into the 20th century): Zeno and Seymour’s stories,
- The Future (2140s): Konstance’s story.

Each storyline POV incorporates the lost, Ancient Greek manuscript of Cloud Cuckoo Land. Since reading the synopsis is easy to do (and you’ve probably already done so), I will not repeat it here. My review will focus on what I think of the book.

My favorite pastime is reading. (I seldom watch TV or waste time on social media). The only other thing I like to do more than reading, is to spend time with people: family and friends, making memories. So I loved the fact that this story focused on the importance of keeping books and stories alive. I loved reading the differing points of view of all of the characters, but through much of the book, I had no idea how it would come together.

This is a book like none I’ve ever read: part historical fiction, part sci-fi, but it all comes together at the end. It’s a challenging read, as the differing POVs often appear more complicated and a bit muddled. I expect that many will abandon it, and for that, I am sad.

During the first half of the book, I found myself wondering how this would all come together, and I found myself only moderately interested in what I was reading. But the writing was so beautiful, I kept with it. It’s a book by Anthony Doerr, so it HAS to be amazing, right?!?

Ultimately, I am very glad I stuck with it, because at about 50% in, the book grabbed me and didn’t let go. Sadly…this may be the reason why many will most probably abandon it (and rate it anything but 5 stars). Because, don’t we want to be captivated within the first 10% of our reading? Or positively by the time we’ve read 25% of it? To the future reader of this book I enjoyed, I say this: Be patient. You will be rewarded. But know that this is not something that will grab you until around the 300 pg mark. It will come together quite beautifully, but it takes awhile.

"It has taken him his whole life to accept himself, and he is surprised to understand that now that he can, he does not long for one more year, one more month: eighty-six years is enough. In a life you accumulate so many memories, your brain constantly winnowing through them, weighing consequence, burying pain, but somehow by the time you're this age you still end up dragging a monumental sack of memories behind you, a burden as heavy as a continent, and eventually it becomes time to take them out of the world."

I finished this book some days ago, and the fact that I haven't stopped thinking about it testifies to its power. I am a great, great fan of All the Light We Cannot See, and as a result I tried not to get my hopes up too high for this book; I just didn't want Doerr to disappoint me. But I need not have fretted. This book, in its own way, is deeply moving as well.

The book begins with several different characters in disparate time periods, including the future. And though you know, as a reader, that their stories will intertwine, it takes a good deal of the book (or it did for me) to understand how those stories connect. By that point, however, I was mesmerized. And once again, as with All the Light, toward the book's end I had tears in my eyes.

A tribute to libraries and librarians everywhere and in all ages, this book is not just highly recommended. It is not to be missed.

When I tell you that this book contains multitudes, I’m not exaggerating. It spans time and space and galaxies, taking us from the 15th century siege of Constantinople to a spaceship of humans fleeing a dying plant to 20th-21st century suburban Idaho. You’d be forgiven for abdicating then and there and thinking, no thanks.

‘Day after day, year after year, time wipes the old books from the world.’

In our 15th century timeline, Omeir is a young village boy who is conscripted into the invading Ottoman army. In the same timeline, Anna lives within the walls of Constantinople, an orphan who is fed and clothed in return for embroidering religious garments for holy men. With no access to education, a chance encounter with written language sparks an insatiable curiosity.

‘Almost overnight, the streets glow with meaning. She reads inscriptions on coins, on cornerstones and tombstones, on lead seals and buttress piers and marble plaques… each twisting lane of the city a great battered manuscript in its own right.’

Access to knowledge is central, too, to Konstance’s story. Effectively imprisoned on a ‘windowless disk hurtling through interstellar space’ a hundred or so years from our present day, the spaceship is governed by an AI called Sybil, containing the ‘collective wisdom of our species’. Within the on-board VR library, Konstance is able to explore earth – through a three-dimensional Google Earth type of technology – and begin to piece together the central mysteries about her existence.

In modern-day Idaho, Zeno is a former Korean war veteran with a passion for ancient Greek who works at the Lakeport public library. Seymour is a vulnerable teenage boy who enters the library on a cold February day in 2020 to detonate a bomb.

‘Ambitious’ is certainly the right word for this epic, meticulous novel from Anthony Doerr. The problem is that Doerr doesn’t really know quite how to channel, or hone, his ambition. There’s a lot to love in this book – his trademark way of rendering people and place with precision and empathy, a highly imaginative retelling of worlds far removed from our own, a genre-blending of historical, fantasy, science fiction. But the ambition of the book overwhelms it more than once.

The thread that ties together these seemingly disparate narratives of Zeno, Omeir, Konstance, Anna and Seymour is an ancient Greek story by Antonius Diogenes, telling the comical and fantastical tale of a shepherd’s misadventures to a city in the sky. That story in itself isn’t that important – the point that Doerr seems to be making is that the survival of ancient, long-forgotten texts is a miracle in itself. Upon learning of the discovery of the ancient manuscript, centuries after its inception, Zeno’s voice fills with emotion.

‘Erasure is always stalking us, you know? So to hold in your hands something that has evaded it for so long—’

It’s a compelling premise – but I’m not sure that the central idea is compelling enough to bind this 600+ page novel together, and for the reader to see it through. The worlds are imaginatively crafted, the characters developed and distinct – but we don’t get enough time with any of them, leading to a disjointed reading experience – interrupted further by passages from the Diogenes text throughout, a story that didn’t really interest me much.

All The Light We Cannot See is one of the best books I’ve read in recent years (I mean, it won the Putlizer – that’s not an original thought) and I had so many aspirations for this book. I feel a twinge of sadness that it wasn’t all I was hoping it to be – but that doesn’t mean it won’t be that for other readers.

With thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy. Cloud Cuckoo Land will be published on the 28th September, 2021.

3.5*

I loved this book so much. In some ways, it's quite a bit different from the author's previous book, All the Light We Cannot See, but in some ways it really isn't. His story telling abilities are quite stunning.

This book happens in the past and the present and the future. So it's historical fiction, regular fiction and sci-fi. There is a book within the book which is also an interesting addition. One theme is the importance of language and information, who provides it, how it gets lost, how it makes its own journey. Another theme is the environment. If only Doerr had a magical solution to that problem.

I feel like I just wrote the opening to a book report.

I loved all of the characters and the story and the writing. I even didn't mind when my brain nearly exploded near the end.

I definitely recommend this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for my advance copy in exchange for my review.

Wow! What an interesting premise. This story has several POVs and is told over a long span of time. I will say it took my quite a while to “get into it” and I was pretty confused until about page 100. This was ambitious and entertaining as well as very unique!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a novel about the search for a story....kind of. This novel has multiple timelines, multiple MCs, multiple timelines per MC... Just like, a lot of people and a lot of settings but weirdly not a lot of things happening.

Therein basically lies the problem with this work. It's beautifully written and if all you need to enjoy a book is lyrical prose then you are in luck my friend. BUT if you can only enjoy a book where things actually occur than this is probably a pass.

One LibraryReads selection for September 2021 worth waiting for is CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by Pulitzer Prize winning author Anthony Doerr (All the Light We Cannot See). Once again Doerr crafts a story told by multiple narrators, although in his newest work they live at different times and in different places. Anna and Omeir are alive in the Middle Ages - about 1453 – living around Constantinople so the siege and eventual capture of the Byzantine Empire's capital by the Ottoman Empire is a key event in their lives. War also enters later in the more contemporary story line – stretching through the Korean War and environmental awareness and protest in the 1970s and beyond to 2020 for Zeno and Seymour. A third story thread involves Konstance who is a passenger on a spaceship in the future, heading away from Earth to find a new planet to inhabit. Adding to the complexity, short passages from an ancient Greek text are interspersed. Overall, the writing is exquisite (e.g., "September closes around August like the pincers of a claw"). Doerr's skill at drawing parallels and weaving together the disparate stories will keep readers enthralled despite the length (640 pages – but honestly, barely noticeable in digital format). He raises deep questions about grief and healing, about hardship and selflessness, asking, "Why is it so hard to transcend the identities assigned to us when we were young?" and observing through one of his characters: "That's what the gods do ... they spin threads of ruin through the fabric of our lives, all to make a song for generations to come." I was not at all surprised to learn that CLOUD CUCKOO LAND received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. Highly recommended.

An ambitious book that only just makes it across the finish line.

And I mean ambitious! There are multiple characters across multiple places and centuries, all disjointed from the beginning, that come together in the end and get tied up in a neat bow. It's not an easy journey to get there. And I mean a journey for the reader, not the characters.

Some signature Doerr elements are present: short chapters and beautiful descriptions of nature. If you found these to be the driving reasons you loved his previous books, then you'll most likely enjoy this book too. I'm in this camp and enjoyed the book, but only after I got halfway through. The first half feels tedious, but the character building is important and pays off in the end. It doesn't emotionally pay off like a Donna Tart or Kazuo Ishiguro book, or even All the Light We Cannot See, but it doesn't leave you hanging with large plot holes. There's plenty of action, adventure, and mystery in the second half to forgive the first half.

Doerr explores many recurring themes in Cloud Cuckoo Land like survival, loss of family and the ones you love, and the interconnectivity of all things like an ecosystem (many ties to environmentalism). I especially enjoyed reflecting on how stories travel through time and survive. To think about how we enjoy the Odyssey today is a marvel. About everything that had to go right for that story to survive. Oh, and owls! The ever-present owls throughout the story and their obvious reference to wisdom were a little overkill. Like a Where's Waldo with too many Waldos.

There was one element I didn't really understand: the title and the story-within-a-story is full of frivolity, but the other stories are not. All that effort to save what is ultimately a children's tale. Why? Are all stories equal in merit to warrant the amount of work scholars and librarians bestow upon them? Is it just because it's an old story? The connections between all the characters are clear, but the connection between those characters and this story eludes me.

One bit of humor that did not escape my attention: Marian the librarian from The Music Man. Nicely done, Doerr.

All The Light We Cannot See has been on my Want to Read list for a while and I’ve heard many good things about it. When I saw Anthony Doerr had a new book coming out I decided to take the gamble that it would also be good and requested it. I was certainly not disappointed!

I don’t even know how to adequately describe this book to do it justice. It is a story about libraries and generations and fate told through multiple time periods and characters and is just so wonderful. Now at first this was hard to grasp and I was confused for a bit in the beginning. But I am also a new mom with a newborn and generally the only time I had to read was in bed at the end of the night after putting my baby to sleep wondering if he was down for the night or if I would need to console him again. Which is to say I maybe read a few pages before having to tend to him or passing out. With five characters and some with multiple timelines, I had no idea what was going on for the first part of the book.

But eventually I started to recognize and remember the names and realize what this Cloud Cuckoo Land story was that kept weaving in between chapters and I quickly became entranced with the story. We have two characters in the past, Omeir and Anna, two characters in the present, Zeno and Seymour, and one character in the future, Konstance. Konstance and Seymour were my favorite to read while Omeir and Anna weren’t quite as interesting but overall I truly loved this story as a whole.

The way it all comes together in the end is so beautiful and my only complaint was that it was over and I could not read it anymore. I just love how everything wraps up. It is pretty rare to enjoy all parts of a book but honestly I just loved reading this so much exactly as it was. It was pure imaginative storytelling at its finest. I was truly impressed with Doerr and can’t wait to read All The Light We Cannot See.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for an ARC of this book.

Not an easy read but so well written and quite enjoyable. Highly recommend but not a fast read.. Like a slow cooked meal that you come to enjoy

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a thought-provoking read about our place on earth, how we care for each other and the environment, and defining what we value. It's a book about relationships on a broad scale. I would call this novel a blend between philosophy, science fiction, and sociology. I found the story very engaging.

The common thread running through Cloud Cuckoo Land is a fable about a man who is unhappy with his life and is trying to go to a different place in the sky that he's heard is paradisical. He goes through quite a few trials along the way. It could be said this is a children's story, a philosophical allegory, or just an example of an ancient tale. Or you might find themes and items to ponder as you see the fable develop.

There are several stories from different time periods. But because the eras are so different, I thought it was easy enough to follow.

Here's a basic list of primary characters for a cheat sheet:

Anna and Oemir during the siege of Constantinople of 1453.

Zeno and Seymour in Idaho during the present day. Zeno's story also encompasses his time in the Korean War.

Konstance and the spaceship, Sybil, in the distant future where a group of pioneers is traveling to a distant planet.

Each of the characters are unique. Anna isn't your typical Christian girl - she's learned to read Greek and has an active mind. Oemir, born with a harelip, is ostracized by other people and relates to his beloved oxen, caring for them and loving them. Zeno has never fit in with his small community in Idaho and doesn't understand where he fits in the world because people never tell him if he's valued. Seymour is on the autism spectrum and loves nature, in particular, an owl, but he never relates to people very well. Each character duo serves as a contrast to the other. By examining the characters, I felt like I grasped some of what the author hoped to convey. This is a novel that can be read multiple times to understand new layers.

I refuse to spoil this story for you! But I was surprised in the best of ways, and I think you will be too.
I highly recommend this book!