Within these pages is the story of Anna and Omeir in 15th century Constantinople, Seymour and Zeno in modern-day Idaho, and Konstance sometime in the far future, traveling to an exoplanet on a spaceship. Three different eras, five different characters, all woven together by the thread of a fictional text — Cloud Cuckoo Land, an ancient Greek tale by (a real!) Antonius Diogenes, about a man named Aethon who is on a quest to find paradise. I especially loved the beautiful writing and how captivating every one of the storylines is, a rarity with books that tend to contain more than two or so viewpoints. It’s something like I’ve never read before, with elements of fantasy, historical fiction, and science fiction, all genres that I love. However, it did take me a good chunk of the way through before iI actually became invested in the book. Each of the viewpoints seemed like their own disjointed story for quite a while but persevering to see where it all came together felt well worth it in the end. Do stick with it, reader!

“Cloud Cuckoo Land” is a reminder of the power of storytelling, capable of not only connecting us to each other in the present, but also to those far before and after us. There are a number of prominent themes, from loss, war, and prejudice, to the future of our planet — with Seymour facing the realization that we’re running out of time and Konstance navigating an entirely different world in the aftermath of climate change. And I'm more thankful than ever for those who went to extreme measures to preserve history in the past, as we now have so much information right at the tips of our fingers. Ultimately, I feel that I have much to process with this read and I’ll be thinking about it for quite some time. Definitely worth the ride.

✨✨✨ REVIEW ✨✨✨

I have never before read anything like Cloud Cuckoo Land by @anthonydoerrwriter . What an amazingly unique and powerful read. Doerr skillfully weaves together three different timelines and stories, all centered around a piece of Ancient Greek text. I was constantly trying to surmise how the three storylines would link together, and the end was so very satisfying (my guesses were all incorrect, by the way). This was not, by any means, an easy read. The story was complex and there were a great deal of intricacies to keep up with. I often found myself needing to go back and reread certain pages; this was not a burden, just a desire to ensure that I was fully digesting everything that I was reading. I enjoyed all of the storylines but was most eager to read about Konstance. I connected with her character and was anxious to see how her story would evolve. I cannot wait to see how the rest of this community will receive novel; I, for one, thought it was a masterpiece. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for Cloud Cuckoo Land

Thank you to @netgalley and @scribnerbooks for this fantastic ARC.

Amazing! I was very frustrated at first, bouncing between the stories, but im so glad i stuck with it. Received an ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of Anthony Doerr’s previous works ( Memory Walls…All The Light We Cannot See) but Cloud Cuckoo Land was a total disappointment. The story was somewhat incomprehensible, confusing and way too long. Hard to recommend this to anyone

Anthony Doerr is definitely a Genius writer! I enjoyed his previous Pulitzer Prize winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See, but Cloud Cuckoo Land is even better in my opinion! He handles the multiple viewpoints and timelines and really draws the reader in.

CW: active shooter/hostage situation

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a book about books (the best kind of book?). The protagonists are linked by a shared connection to an ancient Greek text about Aethon's quest to find Cloud Cuckoo Land, a dream land in the sky. The five protagonists include Anna and Omeir on opposite sides of the Constantinople city walls during the 1453 siege, Seymour and Zeno on different sides of a hostage takeover in a 2020 Idaho public library, and Konstance sometime in the future on a ship bound for a planet far from Earth. Doerr uses 24 folios (or sections) of the rescued text about Aethon as the structure of the book, interspersing stories about the five protagonists in between, somehow magically weaving all of these stories together.

As a lover of All the Light We Cannot See, I had high expectations for this book... and it lived up to them! Similar to AtLWCS, it weaves together multiple storylines (and in this case multiple timelines), and it takes time and patience to sort through these threads. Because of this, it's certainly not an easy read - you have to invest yourself in it to get the payoff of the threads weaving together, and it is worth it!

This is a tricky one to review without giving away spoilers, so I'll highlight some of its themes:
-the precariousness of a book's life - it must stay safe from natural disaster, human destruction, the earth's elements, and so much more to survive through time. Despite this precarity, humans can protect and shepherd books throughout time, however imperfectly.
-environmental carelessness and destruction; the wastefulness of humans and the consequences of this waste; the power of technology for both guiding society and destroying it.
-the value of human connection and storytelling to bond us together, to help in difficult times, and to guide our future actions
-the pain suffered by outsiders, excluded by society, as well as their ingenuity in carving out spaces for themselves to belong.

Overall, he builds multiple vivid worlds and helps you grow invested in each of the characters. It was a beautiful book that spanned centuries, and one where multiple times he gives jaw-dropping revelations that link the story together. I remain a fan of Doerr!

Thanks to Scribner and Netgalley for the eARC of this book.
Book release: Sept 28

Anthony Doerr's previous novel "All the Light We Cannot See", was deservedly touted as a luminous piece of fiction. Doerr's latest book, "Cloud Cuckoo Land is a very ambitious novel, which ranges from 1450 Constantinople, to current day America, to a space station in a pandemic-like situation. The thread of Greek writer Diogenes wraps through all three time periods, and Anthony Doerr is able to cleverly bring to life very disparate settings and characters, and even more cleverly give them common events and characteristics.
This is not a book to read casually, it takes concentration and engagement to put the pieces of this historical mosaic together.

Beautiful writing. Very well drawn characters with an interesting premise at illustrates the power of story.

This is a beautiful work of fiction with a unique concept and exquisite writing. It is a mix of multiple stories that span centuries and eventually converge in an unexpected way. Be patient as you begin reading, as it takes some time for the stories to develop. Your patience will be rewarded; this is the kind of book to read slowly, to savor, and to think about long after finishing.
Thank you to NetGalley and to Scribner for the advance e-galley.

What an epic tale! Spanning from 15th C Constantinople to present day Idaho to life on a spaceship in the future, the story Doerr weaves connects each character to an ancient Greek story, and to each other. A story about growing up and about going to great lengths to find answers that sometimes are closer than we realize. A story about being human and the complicated world we've created--"that we are all beautiful even as we are all part of the problem, and that to be a part of the problem is to be human." A uniquely told story, beautifully written. 5 stars!

There are three interrelated storylines held together by a common thread: an ancient (fictional) manuscript by Antonius Diogenes, entitled <i>Cloud Cuckoo Land,</i> which is a picaresque story about a shepherd’s journey to a utopia in the heavens.

Anna lives in an embroidery house in 15th century Constantinople. She is recruited to raid an old library where she finds valuable ancient manuscripts. Omeir lives with his grandfather in a remote region. He and his oxen are conscripted into the Ottoman army to help pull a large canon for an attack on Constantinople. Anna’s and Omeir’s stories eventually intersect.

Seymour lives in current times in Idaho. He is distraught when a forest that he loves is destroyed in order to construct a housing development. He becomes an environmental activist. Zeno is an amateur translator and a former soldier in the Korean war. He is working with children performing <i>Cloud Cuckoo Land</i> in the local library. Seymour’s and Zeno’s stories converge.

Konstance is on a spaceship traveling to what will become a new human settlement on a remote plant. She becomes trapped in a vault with access to a virtual library. The narratives are woven together in patchwork style. The ancient manuscript plays a role in all five stories. I recently read a book where this approach did not quite work, but here it works beautifully.

The book comes in at around 650 pages and is organized in short chapters. It takes a while for the separate stories to gel, and for the reader to discern how they are interrelated. Doerr’s writing is lively and intelligent. If you have previously read <i>All the Light We Cannot See,</i> do not expect anything remotely similar (except for the writing, which is outstanding).

It involves nested stories and is mixture of myths, historical fiction, science fiction, travel, ethical quandaries, and relationships. It tackles interesting themes: the power of literature to unite people across cultures and time periods, environmentalism, and the human desire to seek utopia. It will appeal to those who enjoy creative, quirky, playful, thought-stimulating stories. I loved it.

Twitter.com@falstaff25

Because I loved All the Light We Cannot See, I was eager to read this text. Cloud Cuckoo Land follows a similar narrative style of interconnecting and parallel character development. This novel is more complicated, but I really enjoyed the themes of translation, living texts, saving of art and literature, the enduring role of classics in our culture, and so much more. I loved the characters—
Zeno and Anna and Omeir. I loved the parallel settings of Constantinople-Istanbul — imagining that city changing from
Christian/western to Islamic-Eastern is easier looking at Lakeport’s gentrification as a resort town. The Reality of Climate change puts the real in this realistic fiction. Doerr’s novels require an investment because of the multiple storylines, but that slow burn develops into a rich story that I didn’t want to put down.

The author's writing is wonderful. I enjoyed the characters and stories, but it was A LOT. Lots of moving parts and stories jumping from different points in time. Although they came together beautifully in the end, it was many stories intertwined and took much focus to follow. This is a book I would suggest reading when you have time to get through in a few days as it is hard to pick up and put down. I really like the style of the author and will give a listen for a second time. Many things will likely be easier to follow after the first read.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is hard to define--science fiction? fantasy? historical fiction? suspense? It's a mix of disparate stories and characters across centuries and continents that somehow all comes together in the end. Because the novel bounces between such varying stories, I felt like I had to read quickly or risk getting them mixed up. However, each story was so interesting and engaging, that I was sad when the author bounced to the next story. I was intrigued to see how all the characters and their plots came together, circling around this one ancient text. The part I had a hard time with, unfortunately, was the ancient text itself. The excerpts from the found and translated Diogenes text just did not seem believable--I'm no expert in classical Greek texts, but I've read more than my fair share of Homer and Sophocles and just wasn't buying that an ancient Greek would write like that (and obviously, this is fiction, so no ancient Greek actually wrote that). I ended up skimming the Diogenes text, but as a narrative device to bring all the other webs of stories together, it worked great.

This book has been overwritten with elaborate and unnecessary language usage. A car being “mantled” by snow is just overwriting. The time shifts are hard to follow. Not nearly as good as I expected.

When I first came across this book, I was both intimidated and intrigued by it. Intrigued because it sounded like a mix of many things I enjoy and relate to; intimidated because it was by Anthony Doerr and having read ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ I expected a book that would make me think.

But what really made me pick up the book was the message of hope it aimed to impart. In Doerr’s own words,

“The world we’re handing our kids brims with challenges: climate instability, pandemics, disinformation. I wanted this novel to reflect those anxieties, but also offer meaningful hope, so I tried to create a tapestry of times and places that reflects our 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.”

With all that’s happening in the world today, big things that affect everyone and smaller things that affect me, I took up this book to give me a nudge to continue believing.

Doerr didn’t disappoint.

My primary motivation in saying this, is because he didn’t shy away from all that is wrong and terrible in trying to send his message of hope. He offered hope in spite of it, in the face of all that seems to seems beyond the control of ordinary individuals.

Omeir, Zeno, Konstance, Anna and Seymour were all regular people–not particularly talented, blessed by circumstance or destined for an extraordinary fate–but through their perspectives, across time, you come to discover something bigger than the individual. After all, they didn’t define the future or save everyone, they just lived their lives as best as they could at the time and Doerr shows us how the echoes of their actions intertwined with one another in a story that is simultaneously mundane and remarkable.

As with ‘All the light we cannot see’ I was not particularly invested in any of the characters, we don’t spend very long with anyone at a time, and it becomes difficult to relate fully to any of the characters. But that didn’t prevent me from being able to identify with their stories.

While there was always something that drew me in as part of each character’s story, I related most to Seymour’s battle.

I identified with Seymour’s growing concern and cynicism over the fate of the natural environment. At some level I understood the appeal of resorting to extreme actions because it seemed there was no other way to make your voice matter, and I of course identified with reconciling yourself to do what you can, small and insignificant as the steps may seem, to push aside cynicism in favor of both a world and a people worth saving. This was important to me because I’ve had days when the news filters in and you can’t help but wonder whether humans are really worth saving, if the Earth might not be better without us and our presumptions. It’s easy to lose hope in moments like these and Seymour’s arc did a great job of reflecting the consequences, and of showing a way back.

Another portion of the book I thoroughly enjoyed was the relationship between Omeir, Tree and Moonlight. There is something so incredibly pure about that relationship, and it isn’t one seen often in the western world where that bond is usually limited to canines or felines. I felt that bond because I’ve heard stories of my great grandmother and her beloved cow, of the love they shared, of the heartbreak they both experienced when unfortunate circumstances forced her to sell the cow. It is especially pertinent in today’s world to acknowledge these relationships, to realize the similarities between the animal kingdom and humans, when there are so many pressing human issues and it’s so easy to forget that the Earth is not owed to us.

I enjoyed reading ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ and in many ways found comfort in it. Unlike my usual tendency to sink into a book and finish it all at once, I read ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ in slow dips in and out of the many worlds it held and perhaps inevitably I found understanding in it, set against the backdrop of our fighting world and my own ordinary life with its ups and downs.

I would recommend the book to everyone. Not because the story was gripping or because the characters were lovely, but because it’s a story and a message we all need a reminder of–“The world as it is is enough”, with all the dark and the light. That doesn’t mean we give up and become passive viewers in the show of life, it just means that we try and we hope, we gain and lose, laugh and learn and cry and live. And that, is enough.

(Also the ending is really neat, everything comes together just so. Loved the ending.)

An amazing story that transpires across time and space with the uniting thread of story and words. In 16th century Constantinople, a precocious Young girl named Anna tries to make enough money to provide healing for her sister, who was injured when the owner of the embroidery factory drags her across the floor and slams her head into the cement. Anna loves words and stories and in collaboration with a local boy, she climbs into an old, abandoned monastery to search for items to be sold. Omeir is a gentle herdsman who is conscripted into the Sultan's Amy to care for the oxen that Omeir raised.
Zeno, an orphan, lives in a small town where he is gradually accepted as he interacts with the children in the library. Seymour is a devastated teen who becomes a misguided environmentalist, seeking revenge on the real estate developers who destroyed the land where his beloved owl, Trustyfriend, lived.
Konstance lives on the future in an experimental aircraft seeking a new planet after earth is destroyed. She, too, finds consolation from loneliness and isolation in the ship's library.
These lives intertwine in the most amazing way.
Doerr has crafted a masterpiece weaving together these stories. He encourages the reader of the power of words and story and the role of libraries in all civilizations and time periods.
As a librarian I was so appreciative of his comments on the benefits of libraries and the need for stories, especially the ancient texts.
Recommended for anyone who believes in the strength of the human spirit. A wonderful interweaving of story across time and place.

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review and opinions. WOW just WOW! This book is AMAZING! I know after reading this that it will be talked about for years to come. I highly recommend you read this as soon as you can!

A story about an lost Greek myth, told from viewpoints of the past, present, and future. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a sad and lonely story, capturing the essence of humanity through themes of trying to do better while still creating unintentional negative consequences from our best intentions. I loved the themes of home, family, and the world. I was awed by the way Doerr's writing reads like poetry and the beauty of the delicate connections between the characters and timelines that emerged throughout the book. Thank you to netgalley and Scribner for the advanced copy!

Overall, I'm glad I pushed through, but this was such a difficult book to read because of all the characters, the central story that all the characters play off, the different times in history - everything jumped around far too much.
As far as writing style goes, Doerr will always get 5 stars from me. His prose is gorgeous. The characters were exceptionally drawn. For me, if a writer can get me in to a character's head and body, I know they're good. The message of the book is a good one that every reader will appreciate.
Because of all this, I read the first few chapters and then kept flicking pages forward, picking up the general story, until I got to the last few chapters so I could get the wrap-up. Happily, there was less jumpiness here and the ending was satisfying.
I give this a 3.4.