Cloud Cuckoo Land is an entirely unique book about the journey and not about getting to the end. There are several stories, several timelines, several themes, several settings, at least 3 centuries where it is all taking place, and all in the style of rotating narratives. Each story invokes sympathy and captivates the reader. All of the stories are connected by an ancient text, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Antonius Diogenes, where a man Aethon is first a man then spends 1 year as a donkey, 1 year as a seabass, and 1 year as a crow. Snippets of Cloud Cuckoo Land are interspersed throughout the character's stories as tales they are telling or tales they are reading as solace and comfort. Stories they were told as children and now they are telling their own children and grandchildren.

Although there were many good things in this novel, if we are talking about pure enjoyment I would have to admit that I did not have much of that. Like many, I'm sure who loved All The Light We Cannot See will be eager to read what is next from Anthony Doerr. I wanted to love it but there was so much happening between the characters, the timelines, the themes, and the settings that I wasn't able to fully sink in and love anything in particular. It was all so much that I could only really like many things.

I was very disappointed in this book which surprised me as I loved ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. it was hard to get into and didn’t hold my interest. I didn’t finish it.

It only happens about once every 15 or 20 years: Poisonwood Bible. Lonesome Dove. Now Cloud Cuckoo Land: a book that I will talk about forever, a book that changed the way I think about the world.

How much should I write? There is a magic in discovering it for yourself, how all these pieces fit together to answer the most essential question we are all facing in 2021: is the world ending? And if so, how do we go on?

Anthony Doerr addresses this question in no expected ways: by telling the story of Anna, an orphan living behind the walls of Constantinople under siege in 1409, who climbs a rock wall to discover hidden treasures; Omeir, a "demon" boy with a cleft palate, who is conscripted into the invading army because of the strength of his beloved oxen Tree and Moonlight; the story of Seymour in Idaho 2020, a budding environmental terrorist after the loss of his beloved great owl friend; and of Zeno, an 86 year old man hiding in the library as Seymour plants his bomb; and of Konstance, on a space station hundreds of years after the end of Earth, hurtling towards a planet that she will never live to see.

And interwoven among them all, a myth of Aegon, the shepherd who longs for a better world, who sets off to find that elusive Eden in the sky, Cloud Cuckoo Land.

It reads like three stories in one; the story of Constantinople, Omeir and Anna; of Idaho, Zeno and Seymour, and of the space station, with Konstance; and amidst them all, the myth of Aegon.

There is writing so gorgeous that I had to stop and read it again; writing, especially, about the power of story itself, how stories can be magic, can save our lives, can give our lives meaning.

Above all else, this is a story about our longing for a better world, what we owe to each other in this one, and whether it is possible -- even a little bit possible --- to hope, in the face of unimaginable hardship, that a better world might still exist, maybe even, possibly, not so far away as Cloud Cuckoo Land, not so far away as the clouds in the sky.

Read it to have your heart broken and maybe, possibly, put back together again.

All the Light you Cannot See was one of my faves. I could not wait to dig into this book and see what followed it!
Cloud Cuckoo Land was VERY different than anything I have read in a long time. There were parts that were hard to keep up with, but for the most part I absolutely loved it all. The overall result was a soaring, pleasing epic tale spanning eras in time including the future. The cast of characters was amazing.

We have Konstance - living on a spaceship in the not too distant future
Zeno and Seymour - their paths collide in present day Idaho
Omeir and Anna - their paths collide in Constantinople 1453
Weave in a myth told by Zeno and invented by the author that ties things together.

I am so fortunate to have had an ARC of this fantastic piece of literature.
Loved it.

ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher, Scribner, in exchange for an honest review.

First off, I must note that I’m a huge fan of Doerr. All the Light we Cannot See is one of my all-time favorite books. When I finished it, I wanted to hug the book. That being said, I wanted to love this book as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t.

From the very start, the book feels clunky. The three timelines and the quotes from the titular book just don’t work for the first 75% of the book. It feels disjointed from the outset, almost as if I was attempting to read four completely different books at once. While I often enjoy books with varying timelines and multiple character viewpoints, I felt that this book just didn’t weave them together in a cohesive manner. Despite this, I pushed through and kept reading.

Midway through the book, I found myself bored and seriously considered not finishing the book. I’m a voracious reader and have only once stopped reading a book, so this is highly abnormal. The storyline and characters just didn’t take hold of my imagination. It felt overly drawn out, as if Doerr got lost somewhere in the middle. I often found I was skimming through paragraphs instead of diving into the details.

However, the last 25% of the book feels more like Doerr at his best. The characters finally take shape, the timelines are explored in a more interesting fashion, and pieces begin to fall together beautifully. Sadly, the prior 75% of the book wasn’t really needed to explore the final 25%. It is almost as if the ending could have stood alone as its own story rather successfully.

Overall, I find this book to be mediocre at best. I have given it 3 stars mainly based upon the strong ending. While it may be unfair to compare this book to Doerr’s prior work, I can’t help but to do so, leaving me feeling disappointed. If you are new to Doerr’s work, I recommend that you skip right by Cloud Cuckoo Land and instead pick up All the Light we Cannot See.

#netgalley #scribner

I received an ACR of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. This book revolves around an ancient Greek story and it's affect on different groups of people. There are several storylines going on at one time. Two storylines revolve around Anna and Omeir who live in 15th Century Constantinople. Two more storylines revolve around Zeno and Seymour who live in 2020 and the final storyline is about Konstance and her family who live in the future on the interstellar ship Argos. I had no prior knowledge of the book before I started it. In the beginning, it was very hard to keep track of all of the different characters and their separate stories along with the Greek translated story that was also thrown in there. For Anna and Omeir, we only read about their present day struggles and what happens in the future. For Zeno and Seymour, we start in present day but then at times go back in time to learn their history as well as their future. Because of the many characters and the switching around of their stories, it was confusing at times and it took me a long time to connect with this book. Even half way through it, I was thinking about abandoning it. But I'm glad I stuck with it, because after the halfway point is when I did start connecting the dots and getting invested in the story. I like the way all of the characters end up being intertwined in the end and I enjoyed trying to figure out how that was going to happen. To me it seems like the character Seymour has Autism. I like the way the author explains his perspectives on life so others might be able to understand why he acts like he does. It was also a good book in that it was a historical fiction, present day fiction, and science fiction all rolled into one. So overall I gave it 4 stars because it did leave me fulfilled in the end, but it took a while for the book to draw me in.

First…thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy of the book.
This tale was slow in starting, jumping amongst centuries and characters. It appears to be three disparate stories without connection. While each was well told it took a while to start to see the connections. Masterfully written, it is worth the time it takes. Take your time and enjoy the journey.

I truly enjoyed this book. In the beginning, it took me a minute to orient myself with how quickly it jumped between characters and timelines, but it wasn't long before I was fully engrossed and finding myself thinking of the story even when I wasn't reading the book. For me, thinking about it even once I've stepped away is the mark of a great book. This is one I would definitely recommend.

Doerr surpasses ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. What an incredible work. He stretched his writing muscles with this one, balancing five different POVs, which he proved with ATLWCS, but the time periods! He is still the best at chacterization, and the style of short chapters makes this novel easily consumable.

One of the best authors doing it today. What a follow-up, and definitely worthy of another Pulitzer.

Anthony Doerr continues his beautiful style of writing that we fell in love with during ‘All the Light We Cannot See’. While I loved his style of writing, this one jumped around a lot through multiple narrators and multiple timelines in the present, past, and future which made it hard to stay engaged for me. I loved the use of Greek mythology to tie all the storylines together. Overall, it was very imaginative and clever how all the connections were revealed towards the end.

Thanks to #NetGalley, Anthony Doerr, and Scribner for the e-ARC of #CloudCuckooLand in exchange for an honest review.

A lush story told from multiple POVs—past, present and future—all thematically influenced by one ancient text that ties them together.
Engaging and intriguing. I enjoyed the time jumps and the multiple story lines. The writing is lovely, the historical settings well crafted and detailed.

Thank you to Scribner Books and NetGalley for the gifted copy. I read the advanced digital copy and I enjoyed the book.

The reader catches glimpses of different people's lives. The language is beautifully written. I am already thinking of gifting this book to several people for Christmas gifts. I know who would love this novel.

This is not an easy read. It takes place in three widely separated time periods, and its multiple protagonists, too, are dissimilar, a least on first glance: 13-year-old Anna and young Omeir in the 15h century, teenager Seymour and octogenarian Zeno in contemporary times, and teenager Konstance in the distant intergalactic future. Initially, I found it difficult to follow the seemingly unrelated tales and wondered why they weren’t presented in three separate, continuous stories, rather than moving back and forth from one story to another, from one time period to another, from one character to another. But, finally I began to see the connections and, so, became engaged through the characters and the themes: a book (the story of Aethon), libraries, relationships, struggles, endurance, danger, hope, and more. The writing itself is impressive, as one would expect from Anthony Doerr, the author of All the Light We Cannot See.

This is a magical book with a big message. Written in Anthony Doerr’s signature style, the lyrical words jump off the page. As you follow the main characters forward and backward in time, the ancient tale is revealed. By the end, you can see the connection between all the storylines. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC copy of <i>Cloud Cuckoo Land</i>.

<i>CCL</i> is a novel about, among other things, the invisible threads of time, blood, happenstance, etc., that connect us to people and events in the distant past we have no idea about, and a novel that reminds us that what we do today is creating the same kind of invisible threads that will one day affect people in a future we will not be around to see. Our decisions matter; our actions matter.

There were moments while reading this novel that made me pause mid-sentence while an image, a memory popped into my mind. Memories of stepping into a library for the first time, of holding fragile, leatherbound books in my hands. Memories of family and friends dead but not forgotten, of people who come into your life for brief periods of time but lasting impact, changing you, changing the way you view life. It's that kind of novel, a sort of looking-glass novel where you see parts of your own life reflected in the characters and situations. Which is quite an accomplishment as the novel spans centuries, cultures, and languages that are unfamiliar to me.

I don't like to write about the characters or plot, because I always feel like I give away too much. But I would urge any reader who picks up this novel to go along for the ride, trust the author, trust the story. Yes, the novel flies back and forth between the past and future, between characters, and I admit at times it was a bit frustrating because you wanted the story of the character you were with to continue (the author is very good at creating tension and compelling you forward). But Doerr is weaving a large, beautiful tapestry, and when it's finished you will nod your head and see how all the threads come together and say, "Ah!" And you will wish the tapestry was a little larger yet.

How to describe a story that spans centuries tied together by a book written in a language that cannot be read anymore let alone a book secreted away and lost and found over the course of 2000 years? Well, Mr. Doerr does exactly that: weaving a beautiful story of the past, the present, and the future.

Just a quick word of thanks to both Scribner/Simon and Schuster publishers, as well as netgalley.com for an advanced reading copy in return for my honest feedback for this novel.

4.5/5 stars is my rating for this novel.

To start, I have to say that I have been really looking forward to Anthony Doerr's newest novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land. I read and was completely engrossed with his last novel, All the Light We Cannot See. This was probably the best novel that I have read in the last 10+ years. That said, Cloud Cuckoo Land did not disappoint. Well-written, characters who are easy to connect with, and descriptive language throughout the novel made this another great novel by Doerr.

"He that knows all the learning ever knows only this - that he knows nothing yet." One of the many excellent lines from this novel. Cloud Cuckoo Land follows five major characters in this novel - two from the medieval times in Constantinople, two in current times in Lakeport, Idaho, and one from the future times presumably in space. The novel goes back and forth throughout these characters, with each chapter interspersed with a Greek story from Antonio Diogenes - Cloud Cuckoo Land - that has survived and been retold for generations.

Omeir and Anna - the two characters from medieval times - meet through the fall of the city of Constantinople by the hands of the Ottoman empire. Both characters are young, both have flaws within them that make you feel for them. Ultimately, the two have a survived copy of Diogenes's Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Zeno and Seymour - the two characters from present times in Lakeport, Idaho - meet through rather unfortunate circumstances at a library in Lakeport. Zeno has been translating Cloud Cuckoo Land, and is getting ready to perform the story with a group of young children at the library. Seymour, an autistic young man who sees the environment being destroyed over many years, arrives at the library to vent his frustrations.

Finally, Konstance - the young girl who is from the future and is in space with her family and those "survivors" of Earth - and is on to a new planet - Beta Oph2. Konstance becomes the only survivor of the space craft, Argos, and ultimately assembles Cloud Cuckoo Land from notes and references in her local library in space.

Whew - and those were the main characters! I found that I did need to jot down a few notes as the story went on, so that I did not confuse or forget who was who in the novel (hence, 4.5/5 stars for this novel). However, I found that I did get into this novel pretty quickly, and, similar to All the Light We Cannot See, I found that I could not put it down. The way Doerr intertwines the characters - Omeir and Anna coming from two different backgrounds during the fall of Constantinople, Zeno and Seymour in the same town, but having different life histories, and the tie-in with Diogenes's Cloud Cuckoo Land story and the its future in the hands of Konstance - made this a good read for me. Doerr seems to have a good way of telling a story - you know that something good (or bad) is going to happen to a character, but how you get to the finish line is the enjoyable part of his writing.

Outside of the many characters in this novel that you have to keep track of, I found this novel to be a great read on the survival of a story - in this case Cloud Cuckoo Land - throughout many generations.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a well written story that has alternating storylines. It was sometimes hard to follow with the multiple storylines, but the characters were orchestrated with such care that I wanted to know what happens. Overall, would encourage it to others!

Thank you to netgalley , the author, and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Scribner for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for my review!

I appreciate Anthony Doerr's talent. I have enjoyed other novels by him but this book just didn't do it for me. The multiple storylines were hard to keep track of, it didn't flow together as they should have. I was really excited about this book and I really wanted to like it but I gave up halfway through after weeks of trying to get through it. I lost interest far too quickly here.

What an amazing adventure it was to read this book. I had read Doerr's other books and still wasn't prepare for the magical journey I would embark on when reading this book. I had to work to keep track of the storylines but it was worth it. Doerr's novel begs to be read aloud, his images and descriptions are amazing.