I didn’t want it to end.

Ok the beginning I got tired of the overly long run on sentences with a did this and b did that and c did this and… stop. And the flipping between different characters and time periods got confusing and tiring. But eventually it all came together and I loved how it all came together.

I would like to know a little more about Konstance and what happened after… otherwise, it was a great book that wrapped up nicely together.

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND
BY Anthony Doerr

This is such a beautiful read that really brought hope, in this uniquely creative and magical story unlike any other I have read.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a book that spans multiple genres - from historical fiction, to contemporary literature, and even with a science fiction twist. This book is over 600 pages with very short alternating chapters that will keep your fingers turning those pages.

The story is a remarkable saga that spans hundreds of years and beautifully interwoven. The characters are simply a joy to read about and the plot will immerse you in this intricate story line.

I thought this was an epic read with three distinct stories that will enthrall your senses and imagination.

I really loved this book!

Spanning from the city of Constantinople during the 1400s, to an Idaho library in present day, to a spaceship hurtling towards a strange planet far in the future, and following the lives of five central characters during those time periods, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a love song to stories, to their power and how they connect and impact all of humanity across time and place. It's extraordinary.

This novel was obviously an ambitious undertaking for Anthony Doerr, and it's a book that requires a patient reader with an open mind for alternative storytelling. Not only do we follow five separate protagonists across multiple subgenres of fiction (historical, contemporary, literary, science), we follow them on a non-linear timeline -- jumping not only between characters, but between different time periods in their lives. To say that it's complex is an understatement; I was confused at first and struggled to find my footing with the narrative, but Doerr is such an incredible storyteller that it wasn't long before I was swept away. Some of the points of view were more interesting to me than others, but I was truly engaged in all of the characters' lives for the 600+ pages of this book. And patient readers such as myself will be rewarded at the end, when it's revealed how all of the characters are connected. It's incredibly moving and powerful. Like All the Light We Cannot See before it, I think Cloud Cuckoo Land will be considered a modern classic.

Doerr's character work is impeccable, his writing is astounding. I imagine his mind itself is its own Cloud Cuckoo Land, and I can't wait to see what brilliant work comes out of it next. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Scribner for my digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

No one writes like Anthony Doerr. His beautiful any lyrical writing takes my breath away! He has the ability to weave words together that allows me to instantly be in the midst of the 5 characters, their stories, as well as, have compassion for each of them. This is an epic tale that takes a long time before it becomes clear how all the pieces are being tied together. However, it is worth the journey!

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for giving me a copy to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was very intimidated by both the length and scope of this book at first. It's a 600 page book with six different points of view that span across various time periods from about 1435 to 2165. It's a lot to take in at first!

However, it is worth the effort that it takes to get invested in this story. It probably took me at least 200 pages, but once I was hooked, I was really hooked. It's an ambitious and unique book-- part historical fiction, part science fiction, part fantasy. I give Doerr points just for creativity and the attempt to bring this ambitious idea to life.

I thought all of the characters and stories were interesting on their own (at least eventually, I didn't immediately click with every storyline, so be patient), and finding the threads at the end that wove them all together was very satisfying.

I'm still thinking about the ending. I would have preferred a bit more closure and explanation from one of the storylines. It was left a bit open ended, and after so much effort to finish the book, I would have found it a bit more satisfying to have a couple things answered. However, what really stuck with me at the end was the power of a story. How one story can bring peace and comfort to so many different people in different time periods and different circumstances. How one story can survive and be passed on through generations for centuries.

This novel is long and complicated and there is a lot going on here. But I thought it was a beautiful story highlighting the power of a story and the importance of preserving art and literature. It was different from most anything else I have read, and diving into such a unique and complex story was most definitely worth the effort!

I adored “All the Light We Cannot See” and was very happy to have a chance to read an early copy of the author’s latest, “Cloud Cuckoo Land”. Anthony Doerr demonstrates again that he is a masterful storyteller. This novel is filled with beautiful language and very interesting characters. It’s definitely a very unique storyline which ultimately shows us the power of stories. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What an epic story, which is very meta considering that all of the characters in some way help to keep an Ancient Greek epic almost lost to time alive and well. I enjoyed some characters and their journeys more than others, and it did feel a little too long at times (not unlike how I feel about Greek epic stories) but the payoff and ending were well worth the wait.

Anthony Doerr’s masterpiece All the Light We Cannot See is one of my all-time favorite books. I read it with my book club several years ago and the beautiful writing as well as the captivating storyline absolutely blew me away. The reading experience I had with that book remains one of the most memorable for me, even after the dozens of books I’ve read since then.

Given the above, it should of course come as no surprise that when I heard Anthony Doerr would have a new book out this year (his first since the above-mentioned masterpiece), I absolutely knew I had to get my hands on it. A few months ago, when I was approved for an ARC of the book, I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to read it, despite the fact that, upon reading the summary, I knew that segments of the story wouldn’t interest me (specifically the “science fiction” parts, since that’s a genre I don’t typically enjoy). The fact that this one would be long (600+ pages) also didn’t help things, since I already had a huge list of books that I was hoping to get to this month.

Well, I finally decided to pick this one up last week and while there were definitely parts of it I enjoyed, I was actually a bit underwhelmed overall, especially in comparisons to All the Light We Cannot See. Of course, the writing was excellent (which was expected), but I felt that there was way too much going on in terms of story arcs, which made this too exhaustive of a read for me. In addition to the narrative alternating between 5 different characters who each have their own separate but interconnected storylines, the timelines and settings were all different as well, so structure-wise, there was a lot of jumping back and forth, both going forward in time as well as backward, to explain various events that were happening. On top of that, there was also the ancient story of Aethon (the titular “Cloud Cuckoo Land” story) that was interwoven throughout all 5 threads that, in a sense, connected all 5 story arcs together to form a 6th storyline. All of these threads going on simultaneously made it hard to keep track of everything but I think most difficult of all was the jarring experience of being plucked from one world and placed into another, then a couple pages later, it happens again, over and over. It also didn’t help that much of the story (in terms of theme) revolved around various aspects of science, technology, ecology, climate, geology, space exploration, etc., which there is nothing wrong with of course, it’s just that “science-y” stuff has never interested me, so when there is an overload of it, even in a masterfully written work such as this one, I still found it extremely difficult to engage with the story.

Needless to say, I struggled with how to rate this one, as I did enjoy a large part of this, especially the last third or so when each story arc started to pick up speed and converge, making the connections between some of the threads more apparent. With that said though, the ending left me with more questions than answers — to be more specific, I actually didn’t “get” the ending (despite reading it twice), which doesn’t happen often, but is absolutely frustrating when it does. On a separate note, I did love the way the characters were written, all of them so well-developed with distinctive voices that made them seem so real to me — I think if the story had been structured differently, in a way where I would’ve been able to engage more with the characters, my reading experience would’ve been very different.

This was a very ambitious book and I definitely admire what Anthony Doerr tried to do here. While I’m glad I read this and it was absolutely worth the time spent, I unfortunately didn’t love this like I was hoping I would. In the hands of a more literary reader, I’m sure the reaction would likely be different. This one didn’t blow me away like Doerr’s previous work did, but it was still a worthwhile read that I definitely recommend, though with the caveat that, depending on your level of interest in the subject matter, will probably require a certain amount of patience as well as time to read.

Received ARC from Scribner via NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the e-arc of this book.

It seems that I have a rather unpopular opinion of this book. I did not love it. I think part of the problem was that when I started it, I only had time to read in 20-25 minute increments and that was giving me a very disjointed reading experience. I also think that because there are many different characters and timelines, it was hard to only read for 20 minutes and then try to remember those characters, settings and timelines when I picked it back up 24 hours later. I found myself lost for a while, but the pacing felt that it was dragging so much that I while I briefly considered restarting, I realized I didn't want to go back and reread it again.

I suspect that this author just may not be for me. His writing is very wordy, and in my opinion, more descriptive than necessary. There were several passages and many paragraphs that could've been eliminated entirely without any impact to the story.

At about 60% of the way through the book, I finally found my stride. I finally reached a point where I did want to pick it up and see where the story was going. There were definitely certain characters and time periods that were of more interest than others, and I did find I was still trudging through those that I found boring.

I started putting the pieces together about how the timelines tied together, but there was certainly no great revelation at the end. It was slowly revealed to us, and I suppose I was expecting a big reveal at the end that would blow me away. The ending felt fairly anti-climactic to me.

While it wasn't a bad book, and obviously the majority of people seem to love it, this book was just not for me. If you like a long-winded, super descriptive writing style, you will probably love this book. I wanted to love it and had high expectations going in, but it just wasn't for me.

Pure Reader’s Delight: A Review of Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land

I first opened Anthony Doerr’s expansive new novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, in bed late one night about three weeks ago and couldn’t help sighing in the half-dark of our bedroom as I read. Apparently, after a few minutes I began chuckling on and off. My poor wife was trying to fall asleep. She asked with amused patience what the heck I was reading. I took a deep breath and told her it was the new Doerr novel, then explained I was having trouble thinking I should ever try to write a novel again. She shook her head and asked me to read out loud to her from where I was in the book. Cloud Cuckoo Land is meant to be read out loud like few books we find published today. I kept reading to her well after she fell asleep. I was hooked.

Tony Doerr has always been an extraordinarily sensual and lyrical writer. From his first collection of stories, The Shell Collector, through his novels About Grace and All the Light We Cannot See, along with the excellent and underrated Memory Wall collection, his descriptions of the physical world and natural phenomena are enticing, delectable, and hypnotic.

Doerr is part of a collection of authors I think of these days as the pyscho-environmental school. That group includes, among others, Rick Bass, Joy Williams, Richard Powers, Louise Erdrich, Annie Proulx, perhaps even Cormac McCarthy. Cloud Cuckoo Land certainly carries with it a significant connection to human psychology and how we are affected by nature and the environment (both the good and the bad), but it is a book that rises to a realm that manages to make the very idea of a novel into a new and otherworldly force -- part fantasy-science fiction, part speculative-coming-of-age-fairytale, part environmental mystery thriller. To my mind this is a rare feat for any author. I’d guess that a good many standard critics and so-called realist fiction lovers are going to get confused by what Doerr is attempting with this form of storytelling.

Other writers attempt this sort of multi-faceted typology every now and then. You could call such efforts experimental or even post-post-post-modern, but no categorization really does justice to writers attempting to slip the surly bonds of what is acceptable in the known world of storytelling.

Few books get all the way to where Cloud Cuckoo Land travels. I was reminded somehow as I read of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five at times, mixed with J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. But this book stands on its own without doubt.

Cloud Cuckoo is composed of a symphony of stories braided into timeframes — past, present, and future. Anna and Omeir are two young people living more than 500 years ago during the Fall of Constantinople; Seymour and Zeno (in his 80s) are in more contemporary moments of time in Idaho; and Konstance travels through outer space in our future in search of new horizons. Great beauty and light are depicted in each of their accounts, as is darkness and despair.

The overt connective piece in this novel is the ancient utopian fable of cloud cuckoo land. Learning, as you read, about the effect of this myth on the main characters is part of the fun and mystery here. Indeed, in the end, that fable points to the redeeming spiritual nature of books and libraries and stories. Actually, forget “in the end”, up front the book is dedicated as follows:

“For the librarians, then, now, and in the years to come.”

We are given a story here about reading and how it can free the imagination and the human soul. Doerr has said of writing this novel: “…I tried to create a tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast 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.”

I can see how some people may have difficulty tracking all of these characters and stories in the symphonic way that Doerr conducts the plot. Yet, the writing is so clear and clean, as well as enticing. And the chapters tend to be fairly brief, with a good amount of action and emotion packed into each burst.

The approach I would recommend to anyone confronting this book’s 662 pages is to simply start reading and let the story come as it may. When the goal is to shine a light on the interconnectedness of life, a novel requires multiple points of view and multiple adventures in order to coalesce and connect all the worlds that have been created.

If you’re a true-blue story lover, I highly recommend this read. For that matter, if you are someone who likes to listen to books, you are in for a treat as well.

I’m not sure how Scribner and Doerr are thinking, but this may well be one of the main holiday book presents you give everyone this year from teen readers all the way up to great grandparents. Do so, knowing you are bestowing a rare gift indeed, a possible cloud cuckoo land if you will.

A tour de force from the Pulitzer-prize winning author of All the Light We Cannot See.

Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land may be even more remarkable than his Pulitzer-prize winning work All the Light We Cannot See. This marvelously imaginative tale crosses time and genre, ultimately weaving a story that captivates readers in a way few can; simply put, it's dazzling.

The third-person narrative rotates between several storylines. Konstance is a teenager, a colonist living on a spaceship headed to a far-away planet in the 22nd century. Born in transit, she has never set foot on Earth, and the ship's journey is long enough that her generation will be long dead before the vessel reaches its destination. Zeno, an octogenarian, is at a library in current-day Boise, Idaho, rehearsing children for a play he wrote, while a young man, Seymour, is committing an act of ecoterrorism elsewhere in the building. Other plot lines explore Zeno's and Seymour's youths, leading readers to understand how they each arrived at this point. And finally, Anna and Omeir are children during the Fall of Constantinople (1453 CE, see Beyond the Book), one Christian and one Muslim, on opposite sides of the city's famous Theodosian Walls.

Doerr ties these disparate tales together through a story called Cloud Cuckoo Land, a book he imagines to have been written by the ancient Greek author Antonius Diogenes. In it, Aethon, a shepherd, desires to fly to a utopian civilization in the sky and seeks a magical means to transform into a bird to achieve this end. The fact that the book's extended title is Aethon: Lived 80 Years a Man, 1 Year a Donkey, 1 Year a Sea Bass, 1 Year a Crow is some indication of how he fares. Each of Doerr's characters encounters this work in their youth and attaches great sentimental significance to it, and their love for the story is what allows it to be preserved for future generations.

There are so many extraordinary things about this complex novel that it's hard to know where to begin. It defies classification, alternating between contemporary fiction, historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and Doerr handles each of the genres superbly. The stories themselves are fascinating, too. When I encounter books with multiple plot lines, I often find myself preferring one over the others, but not so here. Each of the narratives drew me in completely, and while sorry to transition away from a story I was enjoying, I nevertheless greeted the next with eager anticipation. Every last character is unique and vibrant, and I grew to love and understand each of them, even a young man about to cause death and destruction. And, of course, there's Doerr's prose, which is heartbreakingly beautiful at times; there's plenty of gorgeous description, but it's never so dense that it slows down the book's pace. It's truly amazing that he is able to weave so many people, events and themes into such an immensely satisfying tale, and I'm in awe of his achievement.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is much more ambitious than All the Light We Cannot See. It's longer, more complex, and has a lot of moving parts that don't seem to relate to each other until the book nears its conclusion. I personally found Cloud Cuckoo Land considerably more entertaining and believe it's a stronger work than Doerr's previous novel. If I have any complaint at all, it's that the book's ending isn't as complete as I'd have liked. All the plot threads wrap up nicely except for Konstance's, and although her story's conclusion is appropriate it still left me with questions. Every other aspect is so outstanding, though, that this minor nitpick should deter no one from reading this wonderful work.

I've been fortunate to have read some truly exceptional books this year, but absolutely nothing compares to Cloud Cuckoo Land. It's one of those books that's sure to generate a lot of buzz and garner much acclaim — it may well be the "must-read" book of the year — and I highly recommend it for all audiences.

Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr

⭐️⭐️💫

At 700 pages, 5 points of view, 1 embedded story, and 3 time periods, it’s safe to say this book is an ambitious undertaking. Moving between the fall of Constantinople, present day, and several hundred years into the future, each one reads like an independent short story for much of the book. Within one novel, we receive a book that is both historical fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy.

While I loved all the characters, I wished more from the plot line and ending. It was slow going. It took at least 100 pages for me to invest and then waxed and waned until the end. I was waiting and hoping so much for the ending but it felt rushed and left me with tons of questions.

Ultimately, this is a book about hope and home, acceptance and fitting in, a story’s power to bring people together and inspire, and about the footprint we leave on our earth. It is about our insignificance in the grand scheme of things, how we are just a speck in the universe and fold of time.

This book may not be for everyone… or even a lot of people. It left me wanting for a lot more. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Give it a try if you are looking for something different.

Thank you to @scribnerbooks for the advance digital copy via @NetGalley!!

I don’t even know how to talk about this book 😱 First of all, I know it might not be for everyone. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a genre-bending novel with multiple time lines set in the past, present, & not so distant future. The future timeline definitely feels sci-fi, which is so far from my comfort zone, but I loved it.

There are also multiple POVs, & you’re not really sure how the characters/plots relate for a lot of the book. BUT, if you read All the Light We Cannot See, you know at some point it WILL all connect. This is the kind of book you really have to be patient with, & to me it was so worth it in the end! I get why it was too much going on for some (based on goodreads reviews), but the stunning prose & the anticipation of how the stories would link was magical to me. I think Anthony Doerr is brilliant & he’a an auto read author for me.

𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧

⋒ environmental themes
⋒ dual timelines
⋒ authentic, flawed characters
⋒ sci-fi and/or historical fiction

— ★★★★★, loved it

#atll2021reads #cloudcuckooland
#laurens_bookreviews

Thanks to @netgalley & @scribnerbooks for this advanced e-copy.

Like millions of other readers, I was thrilled to see a new book from the author of the incomparable (and Pullitzer Prize-winning) All the Light We Cannot See. Like that triumphant novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land creates worlds and characters that drew me in, that become entirely real, even as they introduce times (Constantinope, 1400s) and events far beyond my scope of knowledge. Multiple stories, each with a compelling main character, connect through a fictional Ancient Greek poem, "Cloud Cuckoo Land," that unwinds between chapters. In each story, the main character is faced with adversity—poverty, becoming orphaned, war, disability; but each one pushes onward, determined to survive, and a thread runs through it all of saving, protecting, and translating that most valuable creation: books. In our times, living with a pandemic, wars, and the immense effects of climate change, all that Doerr creates rings true, but know that ultimately, the book shows the glass half-full, not half-empty. Doerr clearly believes with Anne Frank that "in spite of everything. . . . people are really good at heart." Highly recommended.

This long novel follows multiple characters from different time periods, ultimately weaving their experiences together in a story about the power of stories, and how interconnected we all are. The book has about 622 pages in the digital version.

Right from the start the book jumps around to different times and places, introducing you to the main characters. It may be a little challenging to keep up with each of the different groups of characters at first, but stick with it (and take notes if you need to), because things become easier to follow as the book goes on. It becomes clear that the common thread here is that all of the characters have become enthralled with the story of Aethon, a tale written down by an ancient Greek author named Diogenes. Diogenes had himself found the story written down on tablets in a mysterious tomb, and it tells of a man that wished that he could be transformed into a bird in order to reach a mystical utopian city in the sky.

Most of the action in the story takes place in three different time periods: the siege of Constantinople in 1453, a library in Idaho in the present day, and aboard an interstellar ship in the future. Doerr jumps back and forth, describing the conflicts and difficult situations that these characters face, while slowly fleshing out the similarities and describing how Aethon's story affects each of them.

This is a fairly long book and it took a while to finish, but the pacing was so good that it never really felt boring. I was slightly more invested in the story of Konstance and her futuristic journey than the other characters, but there was enough action and character development that kept me interested throughout the book. The author makes some great points in this book, and connects everything together in a very clever and well written story. I also like how the stories were wrapped up, although the way Konstance's part is concluded was a little less satisfying than the others for me.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I feel like it is somewhat of a love letter to writers, readers, and librarians; and a excellent story about the power of stories. We all might be more similar than we think after all.

5 stars

I loved this story! Okay, it was definitely the title of the book that caught my eye, but I also loved the author's [book:All the Light We Cannot See|18143977], so I suspected I would love this one as well. I did learn from my previous experience that his books can be complicated, moving back in forth in time and focusing on different characters, and I knew that listening to it would not work. So I decided to listen to and read the book simultaneously, and that was definitely the right call. I feel like this was probably a book a long time in the making. The story takes place in four different time periods, two of which are connected by Zeno, both in his time in the Korean war and also in his time in our present. Additionally, there are two different stories that take place in the 15th century, and one story that takes place far into the future. Seymour's story also takes place over a long period of time, beginning at least 2 decades before our present, and bridges the time towards the future, but not all the way to Konstance's time. If it sounds complicated, you would be right. And yet, I wasn't as confused as I was expecting, perhaps because I was reading along with the narration. The way the author connects all the stories is really amazing, and it's much better that you don't read any spoilers, here or in other reviews because it's much better to let the story unfold naturally. While I liked some of the individual's stories more than others, especially Omeir's and Anna's, I wanted to know how all of the characters would develop and how their story would end. This was a truly wonderful book, and although it required some work to follow all the various storylines, it was definitely worth it. I realize that this book may not be for everyone, similar to The Light, but I definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys historical fiction, multiple storylines, a little bit of mystery, and books. Because books are definitely important in this one.

I received an advance review copy from NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is an "everyone is going to love it but me" kind of novel, I'm afraid. I can appreciate its artfulness and can delight in its inventiveness but it holds me at arm's length by being too clever and busy and brilliant for my tastes. A lot of amazing books do that to me. Many thanks for the early read.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is an ambitious undertaking. Spanning the lives of of five characters and more than five centuries, I had read almost fifty pages before I realized that I had lost the thread, and didn’t know who was who or what story they were telling.

I started over again, and gradually got drawn into the lives of this diverse cast of characters, all tied together by their love of books, particularly the story of Cloud Cuckoo Land.

While I didn’t fall in love with the characters, I was pulled by the different threads into the connected stories. The prose is beautiful, as everyone expected from Doerr. I expect the story and the characters will stay with me for a long time.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I tried and tried to read this novel and decided to DNF instead. I'm thinking this author just isn't for me, sadly. The many different timelines were just a little too much for me. A confusing read, unfortunately.

Anthony Doerr has once again blew me away with a story - his prose is absolutely stunning and invites the readers into the intricate world building and characters. There are moments that may seem slow but it all comes together somehow.