Cloud Cuckoo Land is Doerr’s follow-up novel seven years after the Pulitzer Prize winning All the Light We Cannot See — my all-time favourite book. Earlier this year I was delighted by his short story collection The Shell Collector. It’s needless to say that my hopes were high going into this one.

This is a book about stories for people who love books and breathe words. It’s a novel about the power of storytelling to unite people, of environmentalism, human connectivity, and of empathy.

It’s split between six perspectives and three vastly different times and spaces. From Constantinople to modern-day Idaho to a spaceship in the near future after climate change has ravaged the earth. It’s a unique fusion of historical fiction, contemporary, and science fiction, with segments of a fictional antique text for good measure.

As a whole I really enjoyed it, although I did find some of the storylines connected more to me and were more interesting than others. As a historical fiction fan, I especially loved reading the descriptions of Constantinople in Anna and Omar’s perspectives.

While reading Cloud Cuckoo Land, I really got the sense that this book feels like something Doerr has spent years crafting and carefully planning. It’s meticulous and passionately written. Is it my favourite of his works? Not quite. But under its cover I found the same prose I admire Doerr so much for, and the same profound way he crafts human relationships. If you’re a fan of his other works or are looking for an immersive and unique reading experience, I’d give this one a go!

Thank you to @netgalley and @simonschusterca for the ARC!

[FROM @emmarosebooks via Instagram]

The summary for this book sounded interesting, so I requested it, Unfortunately, the actual novel told me nothing more than what was in the summary; it was just a lot of descriptions to expand on the summary. I don't feel like I learned anything or the characters changed in any significant way.

The plot was impossible to discern for me. There was a faint glimmer of a path towards a plot somewhere around 80% of the way through, but it ended up leading nowhere. I was so disappointed. The writing was lovely, but 80% is far too late to be finally getting to the point.

The big twist was anticlimactic for me. I'm not even sure you can call it a "big twist". While I enjoyed reading about certain perspectives (there were five), I hated others. As each chapter is incredibly short, it was painful to just be getting into one person's story only to be yanked out and thrust forward or backward in time. My favourite perspectives were Konstance and Zeno.

I can't help but feel like the story would have been a lot more enjoyable if it had concentrated on Konstance and Zeno and wove a few more threads between them, while leaving out or only hinting at the other three perspectives. Was there supposed to be one protagonist or antagonist? Why did I need to hear all the innermost thoughts of Omeir, Anna and Seymour? While Anna and Omeir were sort of interesting when and where their story ended, I could have done without 90% of their chapters. Sure, it gave me massive amount of background about them, but in the end it didn't really matter.

While I respect the decision to include a non-neurotypical character, I have to question the value in making that character a villain. Not because non-neurotypical people can't be villains, but because he was the only non-neurotypical character and it felt a lot like either tokenism or prejudice. The character wasn't strengthened by being non-neurotypical. It felt like an excuse; like the author was saying he couldn't control his actions and only medication could save him. I'm not sure that's a portrayal that adds value to society. This could easily have just been a character that was exactly the same save for this one trait.

On the other hand, the character who is described as homosexual, I think was handled well. It wasn't presented in a way that was vilified, but as a normal part of society, except when, historically, it wasn't.

The descriptions near the end of the books about climate change are truly terrifying. This seemed to be the major takeaway from the book. Climate change is inevitable and it will tear the world apart. This wasn't really about a library or books for me. Beyond the dangers of climate change, the best part of this story for me was the actual story within a story, Cloud Cuckoo Land. I was excited to read the next translation. It connected multiple people over hundreds of years and they all found comfort in this same story. I would have preferred to read that story, except the ending, which I didn't like, was very bland. For all the descriptions I waded through, I wish I'd at least gotten some sort of reward at the end. It just spiralled nowhere new.

I couldn't in good conscience recommend this to anyone. I don't know why anyone else enjoyed it. It took me forever to get through and it was painful. I kept reading hoping for something and getting let down. Lots of meaningless connections between the characters that didn't really tell me anything.

Genius is the way Doerr kick started this novel. His choice of a futuristic prologue smacks one with the wonderful “wow!” effect of speculative fictions. Then came rich and vivid imagery --- which was love at first sight.

A masterpiece of suspense. The story has a way of gaining tension, pausing at the peak, turning to another chapter and keeping the reader at the edge of their seat until the peak returns at last. When the revelation can be unveiled after a long, arduous wait. Harsh, yes, but effective. Also, frustrating! It took every bit of self-control for me NOT to turn the pages a couple chapters forward...

Well, maybe I did do this one time or another!

Another exceptional thing about the book is the insertion of countless social issues to the story. It discuesses --- sometimes subtly, sometimes in so strong a voice --- racism, terrorism, wars, slavery, discrimination and more. Just as in All the Light We Cannot See, Doerr does this compellingly.

This is an incredibly moving novel. There were moments in the book where I just wanted to cry, pour out my emotions...which I eventually did. There are those when I just sat and reflected on certain passages for hours on end. Then there are those where I just had to put the book down for a while to calm from the storm of feelings and thoughts it brought forth.

Every page of Cloud Cuckoo Land is worthy of all the love and praise and star ratings the reading community can ever offer.

I am having a very hard time with this one.

I was lured by the promise of interstellar space travel, multiple points of view, timelines that span centuries. It sounded very exciting to me, since I love all of those things.

The thread tying all of the storylines together is an ancient story which is kind of absurd, and it wasn't believable that the children in 2020 were obsessed with this story. But I was enjoying the novel, even though at times the pace was excruciatingly slow. So much description.

In the beginning of the book there is a "troubled" youth who is a murderer. A few chapters on, when we read Seymour's back story, we find out he is actually a low-functioning, neuro-atypical (autistic?) child who has had a lot of difficulty growing up in "normal" society.

I am putting this book down. I don't know if I will finish it. I am feeling very angry at the moment that a person with special needs is being used as a plot device, that this kid is the "villain", at least at this point in the book. That's not cool.

Before I start, I need to be honest: I kind of fell in love with this book. So, you know, proceed accordingly.

In Cloud Cuckoo Land, we follow multiple storylines spanning centuries from the distant past to a somewhat distant future, across countries, continents, and even outer space and connecting all of these narrative threads is the fictional ancient Greek text Cloud Cuckoo Land by Antonius Diogenes (I see what you did there, A. Doerr). We follow Anna and Omeir living in the 15th century, Zeno and Seymour and a group of school children in the twentieth century, and Konstance, a 10 year old on an interstellar spaceship travelling with her parents to relocate to a habitable planet. And connecting them all is the ancient story of Aethon.

At the start it’s a lot for a reader to hold in her head (I was wondering if a character chart might be included in the final published version and I almost wrote one out for myself), especially since some of these storylines are initially separated into different strands. But soon the details and characters of the different narratives become distinct and familiar and it becomes easy to reorient yourself within each story as it reappears in the text. Some of the strands join together and the fabric of the story starts to become clear.

This is an ambitious amount of storytelling to pack into one book but in the hands of a highly skilled author who has allowed himself over 600 pages to spool out his tale, there is plenty of space and time to tell each of these stories in both breadth and depth. This ability to create multiple storylines that feel like each could be a novel on their own but which, instead, are intricately connected, is why I love reading big books. Big books reward readers for their persistence. Cloud Cuckoo Land is one of those books.

This was the kind of book I’d been craving after the past few months of reading shorter books that felt heavy on the “literary” and lighter on the “fiction” end of things. Doerr gave me fiction: imagination, creativity, wondering. He gave me historical fiction and science fiction. He gave me climate and war, ancient Greece and outer space. He gave me characters to root for, worry about, puzzle over, and fall in love with. He gave me a wholly original, interwoven story that I sunk into and couldn’t wait to come back to multiple times a day. Each storyline was so captivating that I’d simultaneously forget about the others but then remember and then want to know what was happening.

I was puzzling over what genre to classify this book and then I read that Doerr has called Cloud Cuckoo Land a “literary-sci-fi-mystery-young-adult-historical-morality novel” and I don’t feel so badly not being able to come up with one term.

From Aethon to Zeno, Doerr had me contemplating what are the constants through time. Why do some things last across millenia? Is it quality or coincidence? What are the threads that connect us with each other, with our ancestors, and with our successors? It would seem we are connected by our humanity, our stories, and our imagination. Will it be enough?

Thank you to Simon Schuster Canada and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest (but kind of gushing) review. Cloud Cuckoo Land is on the longlist for the National Book Award. It comes out today.

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by Anthony Doerr

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Like many I read and liked Doerr’s Pulitzer winning best-seller ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE, which I just discovered sold over 5 million copies in the US alone, which is crazy for literary fiction. That said, I did not love the book and like many things that grow too popular one becomes a bit suspicious of it and it is easy to dismiss.

When it was announced that Doerr’s follow up novel, a sweeping saga that takes place over three time periods I was intrigued. The premise had a bit of a CLOUD ATLAS feel to it. When I received a digital ARC from Netgalley I decided I should give it a go. Thank god I did!

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND is a novel that reminds one of why you love reading: beautifully written, a hint of adventure, tension building up throughout its 600 pages, and a feeling of accomplishment and joy when finished.

The story follows three plotlines. The first takes place in 15th century Constantinople, as the city is about to be overrun. We follow Anna, an orphan within the walls of the city and Omeir, a farm boy conscripted into the army whose goal is to finally defeat the walled city. We jump to the 20th and 21st century, following Zeno, an also orphaned Greek boy living in the Midwestern United States and then we jump to the future, where we find Konstance on an interplanetary spaceship in the midst of a century long journey to find an alternative home after Earth has been wasted. Tying together the three storylines, is a Doerr-invented ancient Greek fable about a Don Quixote type character searching for a mythical utopia in the sky, the Cloud Cuckoo Land. The text of this fable manages to find itself into each of the protagonists hands and its meaning and beauty slowly reveal a secret essential to their purpose in the world.

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND is a gorgeously written story that both echoes to the kind of fables and tales we read as children but also speaks to larger themes facing our world today, the precarity of human survival, the catastrophes that loom over us as a species, and how the stories we tell each other can help us cope with and act upon the crises before us.

Thanks Simon Shuster Canada for the advanced copy of this book and thanks to Libro.fm for an Advance Listening Copy of the audiobook, which I have not listened to yet (but will) that won an Earphone Award from Audiofile Magazine, so should be great.

I am a HUGE fan of Anthony Doerr's last book All The Light We Cannot See but this one was very different! Thank you to @netgalley and @simonschusterca for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cloud Cuckoo Land follows five characters whose stories, despite spanning nearly six centuries, are bound together by their mutual love of a single book.

I’d say you have to truly love books to enjoy this one! While All The Light We Cannot See was more historical fiction then anything else, this one is historical fiction/ sci-fi/fantasy/ contemporary. Cloud Cuckoo Land has several different timelines and so you get to know the characters and their stories (some in present time, some in the future, some in the far past) in a different capacity! As if each timeline is a different genre. And at the center, they are all tied together by a book that sees them through some of life’s greatest challenges.

It’s a beautifully written book but I will admit there were some parts that got a bit slow for me. Some timelines were more exciting then others! Once you get towards the final chapters though, it’s a race to the finish on all story lines and I truly did enjoy it. Because of the story shifts and multiple timelines, it can get confusing but it keeps you interested and invested so I do recommend for the true bibliophiles who love the power of a story!

Overall still a great fan of Anthony Doerr and recommend if you are too! This one comes out tomorrow!

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed the premise of this story and thought it was very unique and interesting. The characters were well done and I actually enjoyed all of the different point of views pretty equally although I particularly enjoyed the Konstance chapters with their sci-fi twist. It was very beautiful and descriptive writing that really focused on the impact that your own personal story has on others; it really dives into how interconnected people are not just in the present but over generations.

The thing that doesn't seem to work for me was the same issue that I had with his previous book, the short chapters and how it switches between points of view so quickly make it very hard for me to stay focused and connect to the characters. I think the writing style of this author may not be for me but if you liked All The Light We Cannot See, I think you will really like this. The author stays really true to his writing style.

Overall, this was not a personal favorite of mine but I do still recommend this book because based on the success of his past books I think many people are going to love it!!

"Each morning comes along and you assume it will be similar enough to the previous one - that you will be safe, that your family will be alive, that you will be together, that life will remain mostly as it was. Then a moment arrives and changes everything."

I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the newest release by the American author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning novel "All the Light You Cannot See". In this new novel we follow multiple stories in different time periods. The stories are related in various ways but primarily in the interest the characters have in the ancient Greek story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Anna is an orphan in 1453 Constantinople who reads the story while the city is under siege. Outside the walls Omeir, who is a boy from a small village, has been conscripted along with his oxen into the invading army. IN the present an elderly Zeno rehearses a play based on the Aethon story with five children in a small American library. IN the same library a troubled teen has planted a bomb. IN the future Konstance is on an interstellar ship heading for a better life after earth has been mostly destroyed. She was born on the ship. Her dad told her the story of Aethon and now, locked in a vault she rewrites it on paper scraps. This is a complicated literary novel, but for a reader with patience it is a wonderful recommendation and worthy of more than one read. It releases in hardcover, is in our Bestseller Bay and has a Goodreads rating of 4.32/5 from 1268 readers.

I am afraid I did not write a review for this volume as I wouldn’t want my poor impression to colour other readers enjoyment.

Comes close to defying linear description, but I tried! Featured titles in the September instalment of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month's top fiction for Zed, Zoomer magazine’s reading and books section.
(Full review feature at link.)

. . . ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⋆ ⭒
Well, this was unexpected, and I’m pleasantly surprised.

In its own way, it’s almost genre-less, or at least genre-fluid, which is pretty neat. I can say with certainty that I’ve never read a book with as long of a timeline as this one - it has five different perspectives, and spans seven hundred years - it is definitely a lot of ground to cover for one book, but it managed to hold my interest throughout.

That being said, it did feel like it was a bit too much. After finishing, my initial thought was that there were some perspectives that I enjoyed more than others, but on reflection, I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I was invested in each of the character’s stories, but it may have been one or two too many when appreciating the book as a whole. I enjoyed Konstance’s storyline, but felt that it was too distant from the others. On the opposite end, the story of Anna & Omeir pulled me in, but felt disjointed for the same reason. I understood that the intention was to link this large time span, but it felt like it was stretching too far, causing some fraying at the ends.

Additionally, I found the excerpts, as well as the translation folios, of the “Cloud Cuckoo Land” fable to cause an unnecessary break, resulting in me skim reading many of these passages.

This is novel is really about the transcendence power of language and the written word, and in that regard, it succeeded in bringing forth that message. This book might feel like it’s not for everyone, but I think it likely has something for everyone.

Cloud Cuckoo Land hits shelves September 28th, and was a unique and interesting story, worthy of a read.

Thank you to Net Galley & Scribner Books for this digital advanced readers copy.

~👩🏻‍🦰

Read if you like: multi-generation/multiple perspectives.
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Honestly, I wasn't sure how I felt about the three different timelines that were so spaced apart in history, but I thought the author connected them well and I could not stop reading. We get to read about two characters around the time of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, modern day US with an older man directing an ancient Greek play with young students, and then a young girl on a spaceship going to a new world.
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My favourite timeline was Anna in Constantinople and the spread of the Ottoman Empire. I thought she was a great character and I could not wait to get back to her perspective.
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It was fun to see how an ancient Greek book could connect across multiple generations.
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CW: war, death, physical abuse, cults, bombings, physical assault, sickness, death of a loved one.

So grateful to have taken part in the online bookseller call with Anthony Doerr. He is a powerhouse - so positive, creative and intelligent. I loved all the stories in this novel - but I found it challenging to shift from one perspective to another. This may make it difficult to handsell. When reading any work by Doerr, I am often inspired to do further research. Cloud Cuckoo Land had me pulling up Greek alphabets, watching videos about owls, downloading maps of Constantinople. Thank you for the chance to read it before its publication!

4.5 stars! one of my favourite books of the year, hands down. although it took a while for me to get into it, this story reached into my heart and twisted it; it is a story full of hope and intriguing characters (my favourites were zeno and konstance). a sweeping tale, with wonderful characters and a story that will stay with me for a long, long time! 100% recommend.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is book that you can go down a rabbit hole with.

I don't think I can do the book justice in a quick review as there is so much depth to Cloud Cuckoo Land.

It is a story told from 3 different centuries, 3 different places and a 5 main characters.

I was intrigued by all the characters.

I had to settle my mind to get into the book but once I did, I was lost in the story and could not put the book down.

Cloud Cuckoo Land will stay with me for a long time and is one of the few books that I could read twice and would no doubt get more out of the book the second time around.

I do believe that Cloud Cuckoo Land will be a big hit so please add it to your TBR pile and place it near the top.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for an intriguing read to say the least.

What an Incredible read this book was. I have rarely enjoyed a book so much as this one. The imagination that went into this book, was astounding to me. There are multiple characters, each with their own story, that weaves all together a tale that you will never forget. Do not be thwarted by the fact that there are different stories, you will quickly learn who is who, and when one chapter ends, you will find yourself saying, oh no, I need to know more, but then fall quickly into the next story and the character. As you read, the stories start to weave and you will be transfixed. All the characters are so extremely likeable, and the author does such a fabulous job of getting you to love them. I realize I am not doing justice to this book. All I can say is Read This Book, you will not be disappointed. I would say that this book is now on list of 5 Top Books. Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy for my honest review.

I have tried multiple times to try and come up with a short synopsis to provide for this one but…I can’t. I truly don’t know how to explain this book without it sounding incredibly confusing or being very long, therefore I would advise just looking it up on Good Reads if you’re curious!

Thank you so much to Simon and Schuster Canada and Anthony Doerr for sending me an advanced copy before it goes out on sale September 28

This is a book where you almost have to read it twice. Once to get a feel for the story & characters and then a second time to truly absorb everything & connect it all together. There were many times I got lost yet it didn’t detour me from reading, which surprised me. I became invested in every character’s story & wanted to keep going, regardless if I understood everything or not.

We have 5 POV and three timelines; the past, present & future. t’s a complex & descriptive read, yet the storytelling is wonderful. I still don’t know what to honestly think of this one but it intrigued me and it was so strange…which somehow has made me like it even more!

2.5 stars, rounded up.

Unfortunately, though I hate to leave a negative review, this book was disappointing to me. The book is extremely long and follows three different time periods and alternating character point of views. Already, this is quite a lot to digest and I found it took me so long to understand and connect with each of the characters due to the constant POV changes. This took away from my enjoyment of the book as I constantly found myself flipping back chapters to remind myself what character I was reading about and what was going on in their story.

My next issue with this book is that there is so much detail about everything, yet somehow, no detail at the same time? Doerr does a wonderful job at painting a vivid picture with words, however, I found that there was great detail about many insignificant things. For example, I felt like I learned so much about Anna and her needlework and her sister and yet that truly didn’t add much to the plot of Anna’s story. I would have loved to learn more about her reading, her escape, and her life with Omeir, however, those details seemed brushed over and extremely rushed.

Overall, I think this book is a very unique story, however, it took me too long to really get into the story and didn’t captivate me in the way I hoped that it would.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

A sweeping, epic tale comprised of stories interconnected across centuries, pushing the boundaries of genre. From 1452 in walled Constantinople to a space ship beyond our current day, a lost-and-found Greek tale pulls the threads of these storylines together. Adventurous, thoughtful, weighty… a book that I haven’t stopped thinking about & one incredibly difficult to sum up in a caption.

At over 600 pages, the book contains so much plot. Three distinct storylines take place, moving forward & backward through time in all three - it took me a couple of hundred pages to become truly invested in all of them in their own right. At the halfway point, I couldn’t read fast enough, so eager to see the fates of characters I’d become so attached to and also needing to understand the connections between characters.

There’s quite a lot of despair, sadness and warnings in a fable-like way. When I finished however, my takeaway feeling was ultimately hopeful. The story was unlike anything I’d ever read, and yet the sci-fi storyline was reminiscent of a few books I’ve read - that storyline felt more derivative, although very entertaining.

Short chapters make up this long book, for better or worse. The book really clips along, but at times it was tiresome to be taken out of one plot I was so invested in, to be dropped into another. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, felt it’s themes deeply but I’m not sure this one will be embraced by all readers. It’s an investment, in time, pages, story.. go in without expectations regarding genre. I think this is an impressive book, but found the connections at times reaching.

So many thanks to @simon and @netgalley for a free e-arc of this sensational novel. It is available September 28, 2021!