“Anthony Doerr is not just a master of storytelling. He is, arguably, a magician. . . . There’s no need to dream of a beautiful land, up above the clouds, to escape 2021 for a few hours. Anthony Doerr’s magic, captured in the pages of this thrilling, lovely, deeply satisfying book, will take you there.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

Just finished Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.
This new book by the Pulitzer Prize winning author takes place over three different ages. Constantinople in the 15th century is about to fall and a young girl named Anna has discovered an old ancient folio containing a story called Cloud Cuckoo Land and it tells the tales of the travels of Aethon who longs to travel the world as a bird, but instead becomes an donkey amongst other things. Then in the 1990’s a Korean War veteran and now senior citizen named Zinno works in a local library where he has found parts of this folio and is attempting to translate it and then, in a vessel in space heading for a new world to be colonized, a young girl named Konstance has found parts of the book in the ships library and she is copying the story.

This book brings all of there characters to life, and the times that they existed in.
The Constantinople part is terrific as the city is about to be attacked and panic is everywhere. In Idaho a young boy is about to blow up a bomb in the local library and Zinno may be the only person who can stop him, and the trip to the new world will develop problems of its own.

The characters we meet in the story are it’s strongest point, even more than the plot. The author makes us really care about these people, and you will eagerly turn the page to find out what happens next.
This book was recently short listed for the National Book Award.
While in my opinion not as good as All the Light we cannot see, it is still a very good book, well worth reading.

 

Reviewed by:

Richard Franco

Added 16th December 2021

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Richard Franco