Cloud Cuckoo Land

Cloud Cuckoo Land is an Ancient Greek tale of a man not satisfied with his current existence, so he spends his life trying to find a legendary city in the sky where no one ever suffers or wants for anything. It’s a silly story full of profound lessons and comedic relief - one that both inspires and gives refuge to the lost and the weary. Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel follows Cloud Cuckoo Land the Ancient Greek book for over 700 years. It’s nearly lost over and over again to war, to the elements, to egregious acts of man, and to the passage of time. It survives against all odds - and it shapes and connects the lives of 5 main characters: Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour, and Konstance. Despite living in different centuries, the characters all have two things in common: 1. They are each born a little different and because of this they struggle to adapt to the world around them. 2. Every one of their lives is deeply and irrevocably changed by Cloud Cuckoo Land. —— Anna/Omeir - Set in the 15th century at opposing sides of a great war, the Anna and Omeir chapters serve as something of an origin (or, rather, discovery) story for Cloud Cuckoo Land. Full of personal tragedies, adventure, bravery, and hope, Anna’s life story in particular is a profound example of how a book can become a source of strength during times of hopelessness. Without her tenacity, Omeir’s faithfulness, and the early examples of libraries touched upon in these chapters, Cloud Cuckoo Land would never have made it out of the 15th century. Zeno/Seymour - Zeno and Seymour are born generations apart. While the circumstances of their lives are very different, both are at odds with the world around them. Often navigating life restless and alone, it takes them years to stop running and finally find peace and purpose. Their paths cross dangerously at a library in the 21st century, and the events of that day will forever change the lives of everyone involved - as well as the trajectory of the book Cloud Cuckoo Land. Konstance - In the 22nd century, humans have destroyed the planet and are trying to start over on a new Earth called Beta Oph2. Konstance and her parents are a part of this mission. Guided by an AI named Sybil, they spend most of their days inside of the library on their ship called The Argos, researching and preparing for humanity to live in the new world. The fate of Cloud Cuckoo Land once again lies in the hands of a young girl who in turn comes to rely on the ancient story as a sort of lighthouse beaconing her home. And then, of course, there is Cloud Cuckoo Land itself. Doerr doesn’t just write about the ancient tale - he writes the entire book into this novel. By the time readers are finished, they will have essentially read four books in one: Anna/Omeir, Zeno/Seymour, Konstance, and Cloud Cuckoo Land. Chapter by chapter, Doerr alternates timelines and points of view. Piece by piece, the individual stories puzzle together over time just as they did in All the Light We Cannot See. While not quite as lyrical as All the Light, Doerr’s imagery and prose are still captivating. There are many lessons to be found within this book, but above all, Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel is an incredible, slow-burning love story. It’s a story about the love of reading, and the deep appreciation for those who make it possible. It is a lot and it won’t be for everyone. It didn’t click for me until I was about 20% of the way through. But if reading has changed you, or even saved you, then you might find your love story reflected in this too.

From the Pulitzer Prize Winning Author of “All the Light We Cannot See”, Anthony Doerr has just released his new novel titled “Cloud Cuckoo Land”! With extraordinary writing skills, this author to me, is a master story teller. His ability to transport readers into breathtaking worlds is surely a cut above the rest, and certainly makes him worthy of being an esteemed member of the Pulitzer family in the category of fiction. Is it similar to” All the Light We Cannot See”? No, not at all. In fact the author jumps off the diving board into a whole new realm and does it quite brilliantly. To say that I have never read such a creative and clever story such as “Cloud Cuckoo Land” is simply the truth. This is a story about a story told in 4 stories. Yes, that is what I just said. Fact: In ancient Greece, there was an author named Antonius Diogenes who wrote a fantastical fairytale-like story called “The Wonders of Thule”. Today only fragments of 12 pages remain. With snippets of Homer’s Odyssey, The Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius, and what I think reminded me of the journey that Pinocchio took, the tale is of a poor shepherd boy who embarks on a wondrous pilgrimage wishing all along that he could be transformed into a bird. Within four different narratives of people in three different times and places, Anthony Doerr deftly interlaces the wise old Greek fable into each of their lives in the most creative and unique ways possible. Current times. Inside a small town library in Idaho an elderly Greek man named Zeno Ninis is directing a group of children who are acting out a play of "The Wonders of Thule", when a young and troubled young man named Seymour enters the building planning to set off a bomb. Constantinople 14th century. The lives of a young girl named Anna and a young boy named Omeir collide in desperate times with their individual stories of tragedy and survival. Omeir was born with a cleft lip leaving him ugly enough for his parents to sell him and his two pet oxen to a Sultan on crusade planning to attack the city of Constantinople. Anna and her sister are orphans raised by a wealthy Greek man who employs them as master embroiderers. When her sister falls ill, she learns of a young man who scrounges for anything worth selling in order to eat. When Anna becomes his assistant in theft she finds a valuable codex copy of "The Wonders of Thule". Far in the Future. On a spaceship named the Argos, teenager Konstance lives with many families who are traveling to a distant planet after Earth has been devastated from fatal environmental disasters. When Konstance was a child her father read a bedtime story to her. It was called "The Wonders of Thule". When a deadly virus mysteriously leaves her the sole survivor onboard the Argos, magical advanced technology helps Konstance uncover many secrets of the real truth behind the Argos’ mission. Anthony Doerr weaves a glorious carpet of connecting threads that lie within each of the character’s stories individually and as a whole so well, that by the time you come to the end you will be in awe of his ability to narrate such an incredible tale. I can only hope he will win another Pulitzer prize for this beautiful novel that seriously knocked my socks off. This book will make you appreciate the talent this author renders up to his readers. I usually give a star rating to my reviews, but honestly there are no high enough stars for books like this. Buy it, read it, be inspired! Feel the magic and the wonder of books! Thank you Anthony Doerr!

“Sometimes the things we think are lost are only hidden, waiting to be rediscovered.” This was my first read by this author and have heard so many good things about All the Light We Cannot See, so I was eager to try Cloud Cuckoo Land. There is no real antagonist within the confines of the revolving storylines, but rather the various challenges and circumstances that come in the way. Being that this novel is so spread out in terms of time, place, and historical context, this means that read must continually shift their focus. I didn’t see a problem with that at all, and felt invested in what was taking place. Cloud Cuckoo Land is definitely ambitious. Juggling five main characters’ perspectives and periods and trying to make it work into a cohesive work must have been a challenge. We have Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance and their distinct time periods and settings. Each of these stories will eventually form a bigger picture that will come into focus. While it can be a tad jarring at first for the reader to get oriented and used to this format, this very intentional tactic eventually works, especially as the stories blend together regarding themes and common elements in the second half. Handling so many points of view is no easy task, and I think the author handles this rather capably. For the most part, I felt invested in all storylines most of the time (with the exception of the Seymour one, but that one, too eventually came around), but I was mostly intrigued with Anna and Omeir’s two storylines that eventually converged. Probably the most enjoyable distinction of the novel is how the tradition of oral storytelling is revered and explored throughout through various means and views. The author includes a note after the novel where he reveals how Cloud Cuckoo Land is a “paean to books” and how it is “built on the foundation of many other books.” This inspiration rings forth through the characters and their struggles and fates. The “book within a book” or “story within a story” concept is also interesting, and seemingly helps to form a link between the various characters. There is an undeniable and certain magic that this book has, a vibe that made me want to come back and read each night. I wanted to know what moments would unfold for the various characters and how they would manage any griefs or struggles that came their way. Even though there were so many perspectives, it still felt like a novel I could pick up the next day where I left off at and once again become fully immersed in. Overall, this is a very thoughtful, philosophical, and reflective journey. I’m eager to pick up another title from this author in the future.

Five characters living in three different centuries and four different places are all saved by a story. A story that allows them to “slip the trap” of their fear or misery. Anthony Doerr tells their stories in ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land,’ a book that he calls a “paean to books.” The ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ in the novel is a 1st century tale written by Diogenes that tells the story of Aethon, a foolish shepherd who leaves home in search of Cloud Cuckoo Land, a fictional place where there is no pain and turtles walk around carrying honeycakes on their backs. On his journey he is turned into a donkey, a fish, and a crow. Although there is no actual ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land,’ there was a 1st century writer named Antonius Diogenes. Moreover, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of works that we know of but have been lost, some of them comedies about men being transformed into donkeys. Doerr uses this imagined tale to tie his characters together, even though they are separated by geography and time. Konstance, 14 years old, lives aboard The Argos, a spacecraft launched 65 years earlier headed to a distant planet that is to be man's new home. Zeno is 80 years old and leading a group of fifth-graders in a production of ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ at the public library. Seymour is a young man who is intent on placing a bomb in that library. Anna is a young girl that works in an embroidery shop with her sister in 15th century Constantinople. Omeir is a Bulgarian boy who is drafted by Sultan's army in their attack on Constantinople. Each character is abandoned or outcast and each is saved by a story. Konstance is the last human left alive aboard the Argos. Zeno is a gay man in rural Idaho in the mid-20th century; Seymour is autistic; Anna is an orphan; Omeir is born with a cleft lip. Anna discovers a codex of ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ in an abandoned priory. She and Omeir escape Constantinople as it falls to the Ottomans. They view the book as a talisman that gives them luck in their escape and even heals one of their sons when he has a fever. Zeno has spent years teaching himself ancient Greek and translating ancient works when a lost story, ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ is discovered in the Vatican library. Zeno finds joy in the ancient tales and is elated by the discovery. Seymour, regretful of his crimes, assembles Zeno’s work on Aethon’s tale into a book, ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land.’ In doing so, he finds some redemption. Konstance, alone on the Argos, recalls the stories of the foolish shepherd that her father told her and searches the ship’s library for the stories. In doing so, she discovers a secret that leads to her escape. What links all these characters is a story. A story that was once lost and has been found. A story that saves each of their lives. A story that allows them to “slip the trap” of their heartbreak or existential misery. A story that allows them to live inside of it for a few precious moments and be content, entertained, and remember the loved ones they have lost. The alternating chronologies and main characters make this book compelling. And although it’s over 600 pages, you will find yourself finishing it in just a few days. The characters are endearing, especially Zeno and Anna. Anna, who is so young and so fierce, who trades stolen wine for reading lessons, is willing to brave any challenge to keep herself and her sister alive. Zeno, the sweet orphaned boy who is both foreign and a “sissy,” volunteers for the army to honor his father, who died in WWII, returns from a POW camp to dutifully cares for his dying guardian, a selfish woman who offers him only shelter, never love. Even six weeks after finishing the novel, I find myself still thinking about these characters and their moving stories. This love-letter to stories and books is beautiful and enthralling, a masterpiece, and has been predicted to be in the running for next year's Pulitzer. If you love books, you will love this book.

I have never quite read anything as beautiful and as artfully constructed as "Cloud Cuckoo Land." This is unlike anything I have ever read. Captivating with its inter woven tapestry of a story, the tale moves from one century to another and back again. It is spectacularly embroidered with five main characters. We have Anna and Omeir , who are each experiencing the fall of Constantinople in the mid fifteenth century. It will take most of the book to see their stars align and for these heart wrenching characters to meet each other. We witness the fall of Constantinople and you, the reader, will find yourself reading about war machines like the giant cannon in the iron age with its construction ordered by the "young sultan." This undertaking was fascinating to me. The descriptions crafted and juxtaposed on the humanity or lack of humanity of the day. The cruelty and hardship of living. And then the following chapter may cast the reader into the future, circa 2150, with brave Konstance, who has survivived being born in the futuristic Argos space ship, and apparently hurdling through deep space , on an interstellar mission, for the remainder of her life. Konstance is my personal favorite character and will enthrall the reader. You will love and cheer for Zeno Ninis, a Korean war survivor from Idaho and young Seymore, a very troubled and misunderstood teen in modern Idaho who loves owls and wild life, even as he witnesses the modern day distruction of beautiful mountain land, turning to housing with its encroaching development. And Seymore starts to spin out in a columbine like potential downslide. All five main characters will be linked by an amazingly constructed greek mythologic fable created by Anthony Doerr about "Aethon", a man who changes into a donkey, then a bird, etc., in the style of the "Odyssey". And some how this fable has survived five centuries of war and destruction, recorded by the ancients and passed down through generations. There is so much to absorb and digest in this book. It is long, about 650 pages, Yet, it is a swift and engaging read. Don't get hung up on trying to understand the end or beginning of each chapter with its mythological Aethon references. The long ago past, present and not too distant future will be wondrously linked. Just enjoy the "Wow" factor of another of Anthony Doerr's achievements. This book is not to be missed. I wish I could time travel back to college and take an entire Lit course on "Cloud Cuckoo Land." Possibly this book is another pulitzer in the making. Truly a Masterpiece. (less)

This book is so rich and generous, I don't know where to start. I bought it because of the glowing reviews, not knowing that it weaves together several stories ranging from an ancient Greek text (which, in a way, is the heart of all of this and a literary conceit), an emotionally disturbed contemporary teen/environmental terrorist, a woodcutter in 15th century Turkey, a struggling orphan girl of the same century in Istanbul, a gay veteran of the Korean war, and a 14-year-old girl on a futurist escape-from-Earth mission. Had I know all of the multi-character, multi-time period approach, I probably would NOT have bought this book. My ignorance turned to bliss once I just let go of my reluctance to jump from story to story because it did not take long to see what connected these individuals. Plus, Doerr is such a great story teller, even when you don't know how all of this is going to fit together you are entranced by his fully developed depiction of each character and his or her time. I don't like reviews with spoilers so I don't write them. What I will say is that this book is a poetic tribute to the power of words and stories. They entrance us. Heal us. Empower us see the world through different eyes. Doerr does all of this with brilliant, but never self-conscious writing...you know the type that stops you with a brilliant metaphor and then you have totally lost track of what the story is about. All of his characters lose loved ones (including treasured animals), overcome terrible obstacles and in some way find a path to redemption. Their experiences amplify the Greek poetry fragment that is at the heart of the story. While literature itself is the biggest theme of the book, there is a strong thread relating to the way humankind abuses the natural world. In a very small way, it reminded me of The Overstory, a book I pretty much disliked because of its strident approach. Doerr's approach is gentler, kinder and, I believe, will wake more to the dangers facing our environment than a thousand Overstories. This, in a way, proves his point, as his work is fiction, and The Overstory, although fiction, hammers you with science. Someone once said that nonfiction gives you facts and fiction gives you truth. Cloud Cuckoo Land feels like truth the way Hamlet's soliloquy that begins "what a piece of work is man" feels like truth. Our species offers a strange dichotomy. Individuals wage war for ego, riches and power, callously obliterating all in their path -- humans, animals, trees and crops. This has happened since the beginning of time. Yet other individuals throughout history display mercy and kindness and offer acts of self-sacrifice that leave us astonished. There is all of this and more in this astonishing novel.

There are certain things about this book that are easy to enjoy. Mr. Doerr has done a very clever job of writing five different stories in three time periods—fifteenth century Constantinople during the fall of the city, twentieth/twenty-first century Idaho, and sometime in the future on a spaceship. Over the course of the novel, it becomes clearer how these three stories are linked together: through a book called Cloud Cuckoo Land by Antonius Diogenes, a fragmentary Greek manuscript. There are essentially five points of view here and each leading character is strongly drawn. There is Anna, a young woman trying to survive in the destruction of Constantinople; Omeir, a disfigured boy drawn into the siege of the city; Seymour, a boy on the spectrum struggling with the modern world; Zeno, a Korean war vet hiding from himself; and Konstance, a young girl who is passenger on an interstellar ship. Their independent tales are interesting in themselves and slowly, everything is drawn together. Apart from some minor complaints (after a great build-up, the ending to the science fiction tale is a bust), the major problem with this novel is that, ultimately, it doesn’t seem to mean much. There weren’t any major take-aways for me, and the intricate construction of the story creates expectations of a big, meaningful close. In his author’s note, Mr. Doerr writes that this novel in “intended to be a paean to books”. I did not pick up on that while I was reading and, if an author needs to explain it, then it probably didn’t work out that way. And that doesn’t really seem to be enough. In the end, I feel that each of the stories here, while good in themselves, need more. Despite its length, every story feels trimmed to the needs of the overall conceit. I think Mr. Doerr would have been better served by three novels of greater depth and meaning than one integrated novel that has no overall, big theme.

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE was one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I’ve read thousands of them. When I learned that Doerr had written another novel, I had to read it no matter how goofy the title, CLOUD CUCKOO LAND, sounded. It wasn’t just goofy. It was very hard to get into. It’s basically a four parter. We start with a Greek Utopian manuscript that’s important to all three of the other plot lines. We are introduced to two characters on both sides of the battle lines during the battle for Constantinople in 1439. Anna is a seamstress on the wrong side of the walls. Omeir is a peasant oxen driver working for the sultan. Anna wants to learn how to read Greek, and she has a willing tutor but he wants to be paid. She steals to get it, and her sister gets the blame and is blinded as a result. Omeir suffers from a cleft palate. HIs grandfather thinks the Sultan will reward him if he helps take down Constantinople. Anna ultimately finds a Greek manuscript among other works in the library of an abandoned monastery. She begins to read it and is entranced by it. Next we take a 500 year leap to Idaho where a Korean war veteran Zeno, who spent most of his time in a prison camp where he learned Greek, is teaching five bright fifth graders about the Greek Manuscript Anna originally found. They want to turn it into a play. Eventually Zeno must deal with another bright young man, Seymour, who has become an environmental terrorist with the library, where Zeno is working with the kids, in his sites; it’s close to a real estate agency building that’s destroying the niche of his beloved animals. Finally we take a jump into the future with Konstance who’s on an interstellar space ship; she’s investigating why her Australian father was so enamored of a little blue book that turns out to be the Greek manuscript Anna found. Eventually, when a plague breaks out aboard ship, she’s able to travel the world, virtually, in an Atlas from the ship’s library, to solve the dilemma. Anthony Doerr is a very empathetic writer. Just as you’re beginning to really like Anna and Omeir, he jumps to Zeno and his travails. When you’re beginning to really identify with Zeno, he jumps to Konstance. Sometimes you have to go back and check to see what was happening the last time you saw the previous characters. And when you do see the previous character, you may be meeting Zeno when he was a prisoner of war, learning Greek from Rex a fellow prisoner he becomes enamored of. So would I recommend the novel? Not really. The ending sounded like Doerr wore himself out with all of the zigging and zagging he had to do in order to get there.

No Not worth the read, or the hype. Bizarre historical and future scape nonsense. Avoid

I’d already read a couple of Doerr’s novels, and so was delighted to find this one, and it didn’t let me down in any way. I found the writing full of imagery and insight. The variety of characters and their various histories spread across time and through the book never lost my interest, and made for a highly effective choral narrative. The barbarity of humans and the horrors we have inflicted on ourselves, but above all on animals and nature itself is told with no sense of preaching but emerges through the characters’ own experiences of life in the various eras that the story narrates. A thoroughly enjoyable read, yet at the same time a very serious book that left me feeling a sense of unease about our species and above all our planet. Absolutely recommended.

What a captivating masterpiece is it! Three different stories in three different time periods spanning hundred of years with so many layers and how they all come together to create this spectacular book is amazing. I loved all the characters, and they felt so real. Beautiful prose. Descriptive, yet rich, and emotional. I am amazed at the brilliant mind of Anthony Doerr to have pictured this imagery. Initially, it was a little confusing but I persevered through it and was delighted to see how all the threads of the different stories weave together to create the fabric of the picturesque Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Dense, complex, thrilling. This book is outstanding! I had to pace myself and take it slow to read the book so it would last longer.

Me encantó esta novela, ¡No quería acabarla de leer! Novela en la que la historia de varios personajes se entrelazan den distintos puntos del tiempo. La novela está bien escrita y es sumamente fácil de leer. Realmente te lleva a otro mundo. ¡No te vas a arrepentir de leerla, recomiendo 100%!