Anthony Doerr

Cloud Cuckoo Land

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, perhaps the most bestselling and beloved literary fiction of our time, comes a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring novel about children on the cusp of adulthood in a broken world, who find resilience, hope, and story. The heroes of Cloud Cuckoo Land are trying to figure out the world around them: Anna and Omeir, on opposite sides of the formidable city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople; teenage idealist Seymour in an attack on a public library in present day Idaho; and Konstance, on an interstellar ship bound for an exoplanet, decades from now. Like Marie-Laure and Werner in All the Light We Cannot See, Anna, Omeir, Seymour, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders who find resourcefulness and hope in the midst of peril. An ancient text—the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky—provides solace and mystery to these unforgettable characters. Doerr has created a tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us and those who will be here after we’re gone. Dedicated to “the librarians then, now, and in the years to come,” Cloud Cuckoo Land is a hauntingly beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardship—of the book, of the Earth, of the human heart.

A Novel

Cassandra Tang

… the truth is infinitely more complicated, that we are all beautiful even as we are all part of the problem, and that to be part of the problem is to be human. 

Sometimes the things we think are lost are only hidden, waiting to be rediscovered. 

For as long as we have been a species, we humans have tried to defeat death. None of us ever has. 

Ruthie C

 It's like the boys who died in Korea. We grieve them the most because we never saw the men they would become Zeno thinks of his father: how much easier it was to be a hero when you no longer walked the earth. 

"But books, like people, die. They die in fires or floods or in the mouths of worms or at the whims of tyrants. If they are not safe- guarded, they go out of the world. And when a book goes out of the world, the memory dies a second death."

Jasper

'Why,' says one librarian, 'you don't look warm at all.'

'Where,' says the other, 'is your mother?'

He runs through the snow, and for the fifth time the phone rin

Somewhere inside the city walls, a glow rises: a sunrise in the wrong place and time. Strange how suffering can look beautiful if you get far enough away.

'But books, like people, die. They die in fires or floods or in the mouths of worms or at the whims of tyrants. If they are not safeguarded, they go out of the world. And when a book goes out of this world, the memory does a second death.'

'Repository,' he finally says, 'you know this word? A resting place. A text- a book- is a resting place for the memories of people who have loved before. A way for the memory to stay fixed after the soul has traveled on.'

Anna has never tasted sweet cream, never eaten an orange, and never set foot outside the city walls. Before she turns fourteen, every person she knows will be either enslaved or dead.

Alisha Bhagwat

“In a time," he says, "when disease, war, and famine haunted practically every hour, when so many died before their time, their bodies swallowed by the sea or earth, or simply lost over the horizon, never to return, their fates unknown...” He gazes across the frozen fields to the low, dark buildings of Camp Five. "Imagine how it felt to hear the old songs about heroes returning home. To believe that it was possible." Out on the ice of the Yalu far below, the wind drives the snow in long, eddying swirls. Rex sinks deeper into his collar. "It's not so much the contents of the song. It's that the song was still being sung.

PRE-ORDER NOW From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See comes a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story of resilience, hope – and a book.

Emiley Jones

Large Print

Cloud Cuckoo Land (Large Print Edition)

Princess Twasam 

Moira

A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A GUARDIAN BEST FICTION PICK OF 2021 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA's FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2021

A very interesting mix of characters and places that do eventually all tie together in unique ways. I loved the format of the book, following each character in little vignettes made the book read in small and engaging sections.

Jason Horne

Slow start and took awhile to understand what’s happening but very cleverly written with how all the characters come together in the entire story.

A little disconcerting at first to switch between so many different stories and perspectives. Eventually you get used to it and it's fun to jump back and forth. I really enjoyed the detail packed writing and enjoyed reading this one. The greek was such a pleasure too, so I really recommend the audiobook to have it read to you. Great stories.

BC Hark

Francesca Starecheski

A very wise space alien once said “we’re all stories in the end”, but perhaps our stories are all but one. Let’s make it a good one, eh?

Cody Degen

It was fine? Took until the second half to really get good

Have been always loving each of Anthony Doerr's masterpieces and this one is one of them! First of furthermost, I might say that he is a hellish brilliant brat how could there were five characters in three different timeline.. And all of them are young (start my journey with Cloud Cuckoo Land as a World War Interstellar adaptation) also his writing is elegant and evocative with deep research. My heart always laid upon it everytime <3

We started at the three different timeline; Constantinople 1439, library heist (present time), and at the exoplanet and ship in the mode decades and centuries later. As I sewing saints and stars and griffins and grapevines into the vestments of hierarchs? Every time I stumbled upon his story I always wonder.. like.. What did he do to know this all? What kind of books that he read to gain sort kind of knowledges and write it accordingly? In this book we also learned about the work of raft from the cave and new words to alpha, beta, and omega-- and how it becomes a sentence. Each sign signifies a sound, and to link sounds is to form words, and to link words is to construct worlds. Some of the diction remind me of Tewkesbuty and Enola conversation.. And I realied that he used many old English phrases in this book so it became quite strange to me. I will learn more about it later! 

He wrote the forensic report in the most poetic way with: "A trail of corpses left through the void like breadcrumbs from some ghastly faity tale." Also, the tortmen of Rex to choose book seven as he could tell yet a longer tale of all the evils which we have endured by the will of gods. How could it make sense the way you found it!!! He is really a brilliant braat!!! There are lot of moral value as the page turned on too. Like Konstance said as the tale they have to tell is so ludicrous, so incredible, that you’ll never believe a word of it, and yet—“it’s true.”

Overall, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a wide story about the universe, time travel, and history that buried in the heart of the earth.. and how they conceal as one to make this magnificent string for each other. One lack of this book that I keep find is since there are lot of characters in the story, I couldn't dig that deep into their emotion (sorta different with Marie-Laurie and Warner in All The Light We Cannot See.), like, when the chapter is getting excited, Doerr suddenly moved it to another timeline or point of view which somehow makes the readers wanted to punch the air to hold its croase. Haha. However, if you are looking for an astonishing story line that you rarely found it other and how the author can manage it as a beautiful legendary, this book was really made for you.

“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.”

“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 embedded into the defensive walls—each twisting lane of the city a great battered manuscript in its own right.”

Jaden Nelson

This was such a beautiful book. I was such a fun and entertaining story that felt like it was always getting at something very core to our lives, and the interweaving stories was done more gracefully than I’ve ever seen. It is a long book, but I highly highly recommend you try to read this asap and binge it in a short span of time because the character names can be a little hard to remember at first. 10/10 recommend reading

Amazing. Balancing multiple worlds and timelines with beautiful prose, this novel moves quickly despite its length and leaves you longing for Home.

Tyler Vecchio

Almost a 4.5 or even a 5 star, I just am not the historical fiction type, so those parts, while well done, did not draw me in as well as the contemporary parts did. However, the book is strong in its prose, each setting captivating, the Greek tales alluring. To watch each story weave into the next one, hundreds of years of time all linked together, made for an enriching novel. (Brandon says hi by the way). Most of all I loved Zeno's story, the story of an old man who sacrificed his whole life, with wonder in his heart and a dog on his bed, writing his translations. A beautiful work.

Hayley Sayre

michelle cardone

Absolutely beautiful. Anthony Doerr’s writing is more about the journey than the destination, and this is no exception. This book is DENSE and requires patience - I had to review a “spark notes” summary of each chapter after I’d read a few to make sure I didn’t miss anything. If you can deal with that, you’re rewarded with some of the most warm & beautiful imagery I’ve ever read.

I thoroughly enjoyed every element of this story. It's rare I read books, especially of this length, so fast.

Emma Cragg

Not a really enticing read but some parts were decent. It’s multiple POVs from different timelines which seems like a cool idea but I just don’t think it was executed very well. A lot of the different stories from the POVs weren’t as interesting there was like 2 interesting POVs. Maybe it’s just not my thing. 

Lizeth Esmeralda

Really profound in a subtle way that keeps you thinking well after the book is finished. Highly recommend.

Natasha Johnson

While this book is very well written, I found the bouncing between five different stories a little tiresome to keep up with. It is A story of hope that does inspire, but I doubt I would ever pick it up to labor through it again. 

Jennifer Palmer

Frederik De Bosschere

A beautiful braid of stories spanning centuries, threaded and interwoven by an ancient Greek text. In a literal sense, there is the manuscript/book, present in all timelines. But even more so, there is the tale of the fool looking for an imagined paradise. The characters in Doerr’s book all seek their own version of this utopia, as a way out of their current predicament. In engaging with the text, they discover the power of stories. Through stories, they find a much-needed escape, given their over-optimistic fantasies will likely never become a reality.

Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award! From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, perhaps the most bestselling and beloved literary fiction of our time, comes the highly anticipated Cloud Cuckoo Land. Set in Constantinople in the fifteenth century, in a small town in present-day Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone. 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. Like Marie-Laure and Werner in All the Light We Cannot See, Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders who find resourcefulness and hope in the midst of gravest danger. Their lives are gloriously intertwined. Doerr’s dazzling imagination transports us to worlds so dramatic and immersive that we forget, for a time, our own. Dedicated to “the librarians then, now, and in the years to come,” Cloud Cuckoo Land is a beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardship—of the book, of the Earth, of the human heart.

Fran Lewis

I loved this book. There are five main people in this story. Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance. 

They are all from different centuries and are drawn together by the love of the same book. The story goes back and forth between all the different timelines. I found it kept my interest a d I felt very draw. To AL, the characters especial,y Anba and Konstance.

I would highly recommend this book.

Siya S

I am now complete. Everything is beautiful. The characters are beautiful. The tragic journey has now ended. Libraries are precious. Books are the most precious thing for humanity. And this book keeps me up at night for a week. It's perfect. 

Sane review on its way.

The numerous strands in the story left me grasping for connections at the start and it felt very much like reading several different books at once. Each character is gradually fleshed out well as the book progresses and I couldn’t put it down towards the end. Such a well written story of how lives connect over geography and time.

I bought this to read during our summer holiday and absolutely devoured it. The same beautiful cadence as All The Light We Cannot See delivers a story of finding meaning and purpose through fiction.

Anna Olivia

This book was far from what I expected, even though I'm not totally sure what that was. Spanning 600+ years and following five individuals throughout a majority of their lives, this book explores the importance of contentment, culture and history, storytelling, human connection, and even the smallest most seemingly insignificant actions in the passage of time. I was thoroughly invested in each character's story and the slow reveal of how they tied together through generations. Each one felt raw and real, as if I was reading of someone who truly existed or could exist at some point in time. The diversity in the settings and time periods kept me hooked despite the constant change between narrators, and the varying themes tied to each individual and threaded through the entire novel made this a truly moving, and at times heart-wrenching, story. This is a book I will think back on for a long time.

Cheri McElroy

I get why some people won’t like this novel. It builds a story around an Ancient Greek text and the ravages our planet receives, be it from war, climate change, or greed. But the characters from the sacking of Constantinople, World War II, present day, and the future all tie together through the Greek text. I loved this story.

Stacey Rainey 

I loved All the Light you Cannot See and was really excited for Cloud Cuckoo Land. I have great appreciation for what went into creating this book, the historical research, look into the future, tremendous writing and storytelling, deep character development that really brought them to life (Seymour and Zeno in particular). I just didn't love the whole thing, it took a long time to get into it and figure out who was who and then I kept waiting to really fall for it and it just didn't happen for me. FWIW I'd love to see a shortish novel by Anthony Doerr, however, he is a huge talent who should write what feeds his soul.

Phil James

I must firstly state that Cloud Atlas is one of my all time favourite books so there was going to be the risk of comparison from the beginning. But having read and been impressed by Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See" I knew to trust a master storyteller and try to put comparisons to one side.
For maybe until half way through the book the storylines and characters weren't compelling and the comparison was deadly. How to compete with David Mitchell's satire, mystery and gothic horror/Science-fiction, but I should have trusted Anthony Doerr.
IT IS WORTH IT!
Characters deepen, storylines connect up and it is not at all predictable. By the end he took me somewhere else from the experience of Cloud Atlas, more optimistic even with the horrible realities, and fully winning it's place on my shelves not far from David Mitchell's works.

Katie Chua

at first, i didn't love it. it felt forced and overtly sentimental just to be sentimental. you could tell he was trying really hard to make sure they were all gonna be connected in some way and i was like ok why are there so many characters, themes, and timelines and like can you calm down, anthony. and yet, he did it. he pulled it off! 

second half was so interesting, i tore through the last 250 pages in one night. and even though it still felt lowkey forced and overtly sentimental, it works that way. it's a hopeful book, despite its discussion on climate change, loss of biodiversity, ecoterrorism, war, quarantine, etc, which is maybe why i like it. doerr is such a romantic guy and it shows and i'm a sucker for it. life is mysterious but beautiful and he celebrates that. 

also this makes me wanna read more western classics and also inspired me in my continued language learning journey !

Cloud Cuckoo Land

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