One of my favorite books ever is Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. So I was anxious to read his newest novel. It is quite a different premise in that there are five different characters who cross paths, some directly and others indirectly. Like his previous novel, the focus is on adolescents. I have to admit that it took me almost a third of the book to be fully engaged and keep the stories and characters straight. Once being engaged in the "rhythm", I could not put the book down. Yes, it has aspects of a futuristic world but it did not seem that way to me and I am not a sci-fi reader. Upon completing the book, I realized what a good book club discussion it would elicit.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

I finished Cloud Cuckoo Land the other day (thanks @scribnerbooks for the gifted copy!) and really enjoyed it. Set across three different timelines, Doerr expertly weaves the stories of his characters together and carries themes of the enduring power of stories, the importance of our natural world, and the deep complexities of humanity. Yes, the stories all have parallels that are a little too neat, but overall they were well told and thematically interesting enough to keep me engaged through all 620-ish pages.

“Stranger, whoever you are, open this to learn what will amaze you.”
~Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land

In the novel Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr masterfully crafts an epic, complex narrative which unites five diverse characters across centuries, cultures, and continents. He accomplishes this by means of an invented ancient Greek fable also called “Cloud Cuckoo Land” and a number of richly developed themes. {For the sake of clarity, I will italicize the novel and put the Greek story title in quotation marks.} Doerr is best known for his best-selling literary fiction All the Light We Cannot See, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize; because of that book’s popularity and success, it won’t surprise me if the new novel debuts at the top of the fiction charts. His newest release carries the same intricate detail, multiple narrative voices, and fascination with humanity’s tendency toward the extremes of sublime creation and devastating destruction. In this review, I hope to introduce you to the characters and stylistic features of Cloud Cuckoo Land, briefly consider the primary themes, and reflect on this book from my evangelical Christian worldview.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is written from the points of view of Zeno, an orphaned Greek immigrant building a life for himself in small-town Idaho; Seymour, a fatherless boy with an unnamed psychiatric condition that alienates him from his peers in the same Idaho town; Omeir, a Bulgarian farm boy isolated by a disfiguring medical condition; Anna, a young orphan girl working as a novice embroiderer for a monastery in medieval Constantinople (but really longing to learn and read and go on adventures both real and imagined); and Konstance, another young girl on the spaceship Argos on a mission to find a habitable planet. In a sense, the fictional Aethon, protagonist of “Cloud Cuckoo Land”, constitutes a sixth narrator. The voices take their turns and sometimes overlap like the parts in a Bach invention, giving and taking, merging and diverging, in a literary counterpoint. It seems impossible that they could weave together in a unified whole, but they do. That said, this book may frustrate readers who dislike multiple narrators or non-linear storytelling.

The titular Greek text (invented by Doerr but attributed to the real philosopher Diogenes), the “translation” of which he feeds to the reader piecemeal throughout the novel, proves significant to each character’s life and so integrates the strands of the tale. That imagined text also establishes the fundamental theme of longing for home (Greek nostos) which preoccupies each character in his or her own way and names the final chapter of the book. One character defines the word like this:
’Nostos, yes. The act of homecoming, a safe arrival. Of course, mapping a single English word onto a Greek one is almost always slippery. Nostos is also a song about a homecoming…. In a time,’ he says, ‘when disease, war, and famine haunted practically every hour… Imagine how it felt to hear the old songs about heroes coming home. To believe that it was possible…. It’s not so much about the contents of the song. It’s that the song was still being sung’ (Kindle location 2600).

Their journeys take them on a quest not for the home of house, family, and work, but, like Holly Golightly, for a sort of idealized paradise, “a place where me and things go together.” Ultimately, “Cloud Cuckoo Land” becomes the vehicle that transports each character on his or her quest for home. The shadowy complement to that theme is the pervasive sense of loneliness and alienation throughout at least the first half of the book; in that regard it felt like work that could only come into being in the last two years. (Even the character name Zeno sounds like an Americanization of the Greek word xeno, “stranger, alien, foreigner.”) That mood of alienation was so strong for so many pages that I feared it was the primary theme of the whole work. I might have given up without seeing the characters’ journeys through to redemption if I hadn’t agreed to this review.

“When the stream of the old Greek picks up, and she climbs into the story, as though climbing the wall of the priory on the rock—handhold here, foothold there—the damp chill of the cell dissipates, and the bright, ridiculous world of Aethon takes its place…. Open the [manuscript] box, walk the lines of sentences: the singer steps out, and breathes a world of color and noise into the space inside your head” (Anna, Kindle location 3294, Cloud Cuckoo Land).

Additionally, Cloud Cuckoo Land displays as clearly as any novel I know the power, preciousness, and perishability of books: they reach across cultures, continents, oceans, and centuries to bind their readers together, but the time they can so transcend is also their chief enemy. For that reason they require caretakers, whether the readers who love them or librarians. That theme of stewardship also applies to the environmental themes and climate devastation in the book, which for me are the one aspect that verges on heavy-handed. The motifs of Greek language and literature and birds, in particular owls, also serve to unify the melodies of the different plot lines.

This book provides food for theological thinking in a few of ways. First, the fragile, repeatedly lost-and-found Greek story of the title contrasts with the persistent continuity of Bible manuscripts over millennia and throughout the rise and fall of empires. The Christian Bible has better quality (based on factors like completion and proximity to time of writing) and more abundant historical manuscript evidence than any other ancient book. There is more historical attestation of the Christian Scriptures than there is of the life of Julius Caesar or Homer’s Odyssey. (See Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict..) Furthermore, as awestruck as I am by Doerr’s ability to integrate half a dozen narratives into a unified whole, how much more awestruck should I be at the unified metanarrative told by the 66 Bible books, written by dozens of authors in three different languages over a period of 1500 or 1600 years. The true story woven therein is not fragile or obscure but imperishable and eternally enduring, able even to speak life into dead hearts. (I know that because God spoke life into mine through the Scriptures.) Third, the magical paradise land of birds which is sought by the hero of the Greek tale “Cloud Cuckoo Land” is ultimately a utopia, a “no place”; the new heavens and new earth promised in the Bible are real and drawing nearer every day. They are found not by a complicated magical quest but by trusting in the work of Christ to bear our sins and their penalty and give to us His righteousness, thus reconciling us to God and securing our adoption as His sons and daughters. Though we often feel lonely, even alienated, in this earthly life, the believer in Christ is never truly alone, because (s)he has the Triune God living in him/her, and that relationship bonds any Christian believer now with the community of believers across the world and throughout history into one body. For now that homesick nostos can be overwhelming, especially in trying times like we are all living through in September 2021. Yet as C. S. Lewis wrote, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity). For those who belong to Christ, a day is coming, revealed in the best of all books, when there will be no more death or loss or mourning or pain, when we will truly experience, some of us for the first time, “a place where me and things go together.” Reading Cloud Cuckoo Land reminded me how substantial are the things I hope for; in that and in its craftsmanship, it is time well-spent.

(The characters are not Christian believers and act accordingly. There is some sensuality, including one homosexual character. There are also beautiful depictions of sacrificial love, friendship, and a happy though improbably marriage.)

To sum up, in Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr has perhaps surpassed the literary accomplishment of All the Light We Cannot See. I loved several of these characters, in a way I don’t recall loving Marie-Laure and Werner. It is very long and exceedingly complex, and the first half offers little in the way of hope, but the narrative payoff of redemption is all the sweeter for the darkness of its backdrop. This novel is a love offering to books, librarians, language, and the beauties of this world. I expect it will win more prizes and enjoy many, many weeks atop best-seller lists. I hope the thoughts above help you decide whether it’s for you, for now, and provide kindling for your own reflections if you choose to read it. For it is a book deserving of reflection, not one to read once and check off on Goodreads.

{This review is based on an advance galley copy I received in exchange for an honest and timely review.}

Cloud Cuckoo Land is an ambitious novel about the power of books and stories.

It follows 5 characters in 3 different time periods. In medieval Constantinople, we follow Anna, an orphan who works as a seamstress with her sister, and Omeir, a boy with a deformed face who joins the sultan's army. In modern day Idaho, we follow Seymour, a troubled teenager who wants to blow up the local library, and Zeno, an aging veteran who spends most of his time at the library. And in the future, we follow Konstance, a young girl on a generation ship traveling to a distant planet. The thread that strings all these pieces together is Cloud Cuckoo Land - an ancient Greek adventure story about Aethon who wants to turn into a bird and fly to the utopian Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Each character in the novel plays an important role in ensuring that Cloud Cuckoo Land survives and is passed on. It's a book about books and their place in the world. Beautifully written and thought provoking, this book will appeal to lovers of language and literature.

Wow wow wow!! This book is so amazing. I will be recommending it forever. I enjoyed the threads that wove every storyline together. Seymour’s story was so heart-wrenching. I am very curious as to the author’s reason for having him seem to be on the autism spectrum. I think it did help him to remain beloved and accepted by the reader as he was making terrible decisions. I did deeply appreciate his redemptive arc where he sought forgiveness and healing for the children that were in the library. I also loved the owls he planted. Which leads me to Konstance. I did find it a little weird that she only found owls related to her dads story when Seymour left more owls. I understand that would’ve confused things for Konstance BUT it just seemed unlikely based on the amount of owls he left. Konstance’s storyline was one of my favorites BUT left me with a lot of questions. Like how did this super contagious virus affect everyone BUT her? I was also curious to how she integrated back into a quiet life and if there were repercussions for the company that put them on the fake mission. Omeir and Anna’s story was my least favorite but still very enjoyable. I felt like there was a lot of buildup that dragged out for too long, but then their conclusion was too fast. I wanted more of how their relationship blossomed. It felt very rushed. Overall, this book was beautiful and incredible and I will highly recommend it to others!

All the Light We Cannot See was a breathtaking work of literature, enough to catapult hitherto-known-as-a-short-story writer Anthony Doerr into the stratosphere of literary fiction and garner a Pulitzer Prize to boot. Unfortunately, All the Light We Cannot See, Cloud Cuckoo Land is not. As much as I was put off by the initial messiness of the story before it found its pacing, Doerr’s writing is so precise and imaginative that I found myself won over as I continued on—the opposite of my experience reading The Starless Sea (another highly anticipated follow up novel to one of my personal all-time favorite books). Yes, Doerr bites off more than he can chew in Cloud Cuckoo Land, but he is able to at least somewhat swallow his meal.

A huge part of the success of Doerr’s previous work was in no doubt its setting in historical fiction. All The Light We Cannot See was part of a major rush on novels set during World War 2 and was able to cross over into the romance audience based on the strength of one of its subplot. Doerr attempts a similar trick here, and goes a step further to get out Romeo and Juliet characters together by the end, but it was disappointing to see him retread ground he already furtively mined (and too much better success on the first go around). There are several genres fighting for supremacy across Cloud Cuckoo Land: ancient myth, historical fiction, war novel, modern day thriller, and science fiction. Let’s unpack them one by one.

First, the ancient myth by unknown poet “Antonius Diogenes” (insert eye roll here); I like the concept and would kind of be fascinated by a modern day writer attempting to pen a true epic poem, but Doerr takes the easy way out. The scrolls that are being translated have deteriorated you see, so we don’t have the full poem. We’re also told that this is a comedy in the style of the ancient Greeks but the problem here is despite Doerr’s many, many truly incredible skills with storytelling, humor is the one thing he lacks. The titular “Cloud Cuckoo Land” simply isn’t a strong enough narrative to use as the centerpiece to build an entire novel worthy of Doerr’s talent.
Second, we enter the historical fiction section set during the fall of Istanbul, not Constantinople. I like what Doerr does here, a trick I first came across with the writer Emma Cline where they refrain from using proper nouns and achieve a timeless effect. This section featuring point of view from a boy conscripted to the attacking army and a girl who lives within the city walls revolves around Sultan Mehmet II’s siege of the city, but the beauty is in the details that Doerr chooses to leave out.

Next, we approach the modern day but are in the Korean War and first introduced to a character that will also appear in the modern day chapters. What struck me about how this book treats the concept of war is there are three people who are wrapped up in the war (including two in the military forces) but none of the characters are involved in any literal fighting. This could be a commentary on how war affects many more people than simply soldiers, but then why have two pacifists who are in the army as your narrative entry point? It’s redundant.

If there is a villain in Cloud Cuckoo Land it is our point of view character for the chapters that take place in the modern day. There are surely people who will take issue with the fact the villain is an autistic character, and honestly, I’m one of them. There is nothing wrong with including an autistic character or an autistic villain at that (and man, Doerr has some incredible passages when describing the sensory overload he is faced with), but Doerr uses the character’s autism in a way that leaves a terrible taste in the mouth. Either Doerr is excusing the character’s actions as a result of his autism or he is saying that he isn’t responsible for his actions because he has autism—and neither of those are good or acceptable things to do. I’m honestly kind of shocked that a major publishing house would allow a character like this in 2021.

Finally, we arrive at the science fiction section where all of the other plotlines converge. As much as I wasn’t the biggest fan of this part of the book (Doerr shines best in his historical settings rather than his speculative ones) I really loved the resolution for the crisis faced by our heroine. Part of this subplot is about a mysterious illness spreading around a spaceship and I am very curious to know when exactly Doerr finished the book and/or when he decided to add an airborne illness to the story. It certainly is timely and I wonder if it was due to the state of the real world or an interesting coincidence it is included.

In summary, Cloud Cuckoo Land is good not great. It is certainly not as good as his previous work, but its better than a lot of the other books that are currently being published. Ironically, I would suggest that anyone who is a major fan of Doerr to avoid this book but book clubs and casual readers should pick it up and give it a whirl.

My thanks to Net Galley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book was definitely outside my normal type of read. It is a novel with the past, present and futuristic parts. I was drawn to it because of the Greek setting and the author. There were five characters and three storylines to keep straight. It was very well written but I didn’t love it, particularly the futuristic portion of the book. As I mentioned I’m not a fan of science fiction which this section was in my opinion.

The author writes beautifully and everything fits together in the end. There were a number of themes running through the story which mostly were sad and yet thoughtful. Despite the fact that the book is 600+ pages., also somewhat longer than my usual read, the chapters were short and made for an easier read. All in all the book was interesting and well thought out but not necessarily my type of novel.

“I think art is another way to try to exercise your imagination at connecting incongruous things. It’s a way to say, hey, reader, let’s work together and practice and train our imagination to connect things that you don’t readily think of as connected” …Anthony Doerr

Patience, dear reader, patience. If anyone were to tell me I would be absolutely enthralled by a hefty novel spanning a millennium, encompassing mythology, science fiction and tragedy, I would have told them, “Doubt it.” But again, Anthony Doerr wizard-wordsmith, worked his magic and left me reeling.

The five main characters and three distinct time periods of Cloud Cuckoo Land are artfully connected by a single (fictional) ancient Greek text. 15th-century Constantinople, present day Idaho, and a spaceship in the distant future are backdrops for humanity’s core devotion to learning, survival and gratitude.

I will not rob future readers of their personal discovery by revealing details about the plot. There is heavy lifting involved in themes; haunting, timely, even hopeful. Perhaps individual reader’s exploration of their own connections to words and the world is in fact the point. My hope is that this treasure inspires reflection, appreciation and action in the reading community and beyond.

“The things that look fixed in the world, child—mountains, titles, empires—their permanence is only an illusion. We believe they will last, but that is only because of the extreme brevity of our own lives.”

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I liked 'All the Light' a lot and was eager to read this new book by Doerr. This book is - - different. It's not at all like 'All the Light'. It's a rather confusing book and very long! The writing and descriptions are beautiful but it takes some work to trudge through the story.

Honestly this book was not for me.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is riddled with beautiful descriptive phrases and prose. However it is a challenging read with too many characters, timelines and fantastical elements. Doerr is an incredible writer, unfortunately I did not enjoy reading this book.

Labeled General Fiction (Adult) | Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction which I why I requested the ARC as I do enjoy all those genres but Cloud Cuckoo Land landed in the wrong side of enjoyable.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the advance reader copy.

I really wanted to love this book, but have to give it a solid 3.5 (rounding up). I loved following Zeno and Seymour, but the other elements of the book really confused me at parts.

Wow, this book had one of the best build ups to the ending that I've read all year... which is almost the complete opposite of what I thought when I first picked up Cloud Cuckoo Land! I read All the Light We Cannot See years ago and felt so-so about it, which made me a tad concerned going into Doerr's latest novel. For the longest time I had to remind myself what each character's plot was and how it was vital to the overall picture, but by 400 pages in you really start to see all the puzzle pieces come together! Konstance was my favorite character out of all the POVs and WOW the revelation she discovers while on a journey in space is absolutely bonkers. This is a story that will sadly lose people along the way due to its length and interchanging timelines, but for those who stick through until the end will be so glad they did!

Thank you to Scribner books and Netgalley for an early copy of Cloud Cuckoo Land!

3 stars because I liked it . . . teetering on the 3.5ish side!

Cloud Cuckoo Land is NOT like All the Light We Cannot See. I would (and will) recommend Cloud Cuckoo Land to anyone who wants to read other books by Anthony Doerr, but this one wouldn't be on the tip of my tongue should someone say they want to read a book like All the Light We Cannot See.

Cloud Cuckoo Land, for me, was a hodgepodge of stories and of persons, places, and things, which I enjoy now and then, but admittedly, it does make my brain work a little bit harder. When I read, I prefer not to have to think much, but for Doerr, I'll do it... I'll think. Cloud Cuckoo Land is certainly unique and worth the read.

Behind the scenes at the publishing house:

An intern is rushing around the office between her fifth and sixth coffee run of the day and is handed drafts of three different books. She’s furiously typing Christina’s order of a venti nonfat latte with 3 pumps of sugar-free cinnamon dolce into her Starbucks app when she runs straight into a colleague. Papers go flying everywhere. She turns bright red, drops to the floor, and Ben, ever so helpful, especially for having just been slammed into before he has gotten *his* coffee, helps her scoop them up into some semblance of an orderly pile. Just then, the editor to whom the drafts are to be delivered rounds the corner. Too flustered to say anything, the intern simply hands over the pile of nonsensically sorted chapters. The editor, knowing the author is the proud owner of a Pulitzer, declares this to be groundbreaking and genius. Non-linear timelines and multiple POVs are so in right now! And thus Cloud Cuckoo Land is born.

Clearly, I’m being a bit (okay, more than a bit) facetious here, but also… I did not enjoy the formatting of this at all. It jumped around far too much for my liking (we follow 5 characters, two of whom have both past and present chapters, so it’s 7 timelines to keep track of) and I felt some of the storylines were far stronger than others. (I want to read a whole book about Konstance!) While I appreciate what Doerr was doing with tying humanity together despite vast differences in time, place, and circumstances, I still don’t know if it made all of the timelines worth it. I also felt that one timeline left me with more questions than answers. This is a hefty book, and it really could have used some editing. Some though I feel will argue that the editing should come more in the form of trimming down the prose rather than losing characters.

So let’s get to the prose then, shall we… The writing was beautiful and so descriptive. Very, veeeery descriptive. There are pages and pages of detailed setting description before something actually happens, so for those who know themselves as readers and who know they do not like that type of thing, this is my warning to you. And for those who are world builders and love beautiful descriptions, it is my enticement. This is a book you will really have to immerse yourself in, and for me, the writing did help to do that. I quite enjoyed it, but can see why others are having a very hard time with it.

Lastly, I have really mixed feelings about Seymour and his portrayal. On the one hand, it’s wonderful to see representation of neurodiverse characters. On the other, I’m pretty deeply uncomfortable with some of the choices here. He is introduced to us as he walks into a library full of children, toting a bomb in his backpack… For some, the character arc and the book’s overall message will justify this. For me, I was greatly disheartened to see yet another semi-villainous portrayal of someone with a cognitive difference or mental illness, regardless of whether or not there is redemption. It’s just not a message that I think needs to be out there right now, especially from this “calibre” of literature which will be reaching quite a wide audience.

I’m really quite stumped as to how to rate this. There were things I loved and I could see flashes of genius in it. I enjoyed the writing and will be reading other books by the author. But I also just had a lot of problems with it, structurally, and otherwise.

I absolutely loved All the Light We Can't See, and was eagerly awaiting Anthony Doerr's next book, but I just couldn't get into this one. Too many subplots and not in the genre that I usually read. So, I didn't finish it. But I will say that his prose is just gorgeous. Perhaps I will try again at later date.. I do appreciate the advanced copy from Scribners and NetGalley.

“Stranger, whoever you are, open this to learn what will amaze you.”

What a book this was. Cloud Cuckoo Land was fantastical, eye-opening, emotional and a bit a too long.

Summarizing this book is basically impossible but I would say this is for fans of literary fiction, ancient history with an emphasis on Greece, nature and wildlife, libraries, etymology and magical stories that transcend time.

The first 3rd of this book confused the hell out of me. I’m glad I kept going thanks to glowing reviews from @seekingdystopia and @its.amandas.bookshelf but if you struggle with non-linear timelines (I’m talking 1400s vs 100 years from current times) and lots of characters you’ve been warned. I thoroughly enjoyed the second half of this book but wanted a little more from the ending. For how long this was I think some of the timelines deserved a bit more detail/info on what exactly happened. I’m lookin at your Argos.

Overall I really enjoyed this quirky book (being a lover of etymology / Greek word nerd definitely helped). Anything that showcases the power of storytelling is a special book and this one did so in a really unique way.

This book was different than anything I’ve read!

As many people have mentioned, this book had so many POV’s.
I found that since the timelines were so different and the characters were so different, it was not hard to keep everything straight.

There was a lot going in this book. It’s part historical fiction, part science fiction and those are not two genres you typically see together.
It did keep me engaged for over 600 pages, so clearly it worked for me, though, I do think some parts could be cut and shortened.

I liked the message of this book! It was compelling and daunting, but I felt ended up being a worthy read!

First, this book was LONG. Don't let it scare you. The chapters are short and once you get into it, it flies by.

It took me a bit to figure out what was going on and how all of these stories were connected. I'm still not quite sure what was happening some of the time, but the beautiful writing really makes up for it. I felt such a connection to all of the characters, even though there were a lot, and was so invested in each story. This is engrossing, and even thrilling at times, and as things started to fall into place the more I was into it.

How do you follow up the success of a huge hit, like Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See? That's a good problem to have but I'm not sure Doerr will find the same level of acclaim with Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Cloud Cuckoo land follows many different stories, the world over, throughout time, and space. We are introduced to the ancient text, the eponymous Cloud Cuckoo Land by Antonius Diogenes, and lives that it touches and the lives that touch the lives it touches.

All the Light We Cannot See was, to me, an extremely immersive book. I was carried away from the story and compelled to keep reading until I had finished it. It, similar to Cloud Cuckoo Land, also had more than one storyline running at the same time, and to me it felt easy enough to track, but I know members of my book club found it confusing. Anyone who found All the Light We Cannot See confusing for those same reasons, will definitely struggle with Cloud Cuckoo Land. Altogether there are seven different storylines. Some of them are told strictly linearly, but some of them jump back and forth in time. It takes some time to settle into the story, I did not find it quite as compelling as I found Doerr's previous novel.

Because there are so many different storylines, it's much harder to relate in any deep way to the characters. Every time you settle in with on story, it's time to move on to the next. I think the emotional connection from All the Light We Cannot See was greater, if for no reason other than you spend more time with a smaller cast of characters.

Ultimately though, Cloud Cuckoo Land picks up. You find yourself deeply engrossed in most, if not all of the storylines, and very invested in the outcomes. It was emotional and thought provoking and I think, a success. I'm not sure it will have as big of a draw as Doerr's previous novel, and I don't know that everyone who picks it up because they liked his last offering will be willing to stick it out with this one, but I think that those who do will find the payoff plenty rewarding.

Based on the reviews that are in so far, it seems like readers will either love or hate this book. You can put me firmly in the love category. I don't think I can come up with enough superlatives to do this book justice. I count The Light We Cannot See as one of my favorite books (granted, it's a long list). When I had the opportunity to read an ARC of Mr. Doerr's latest book, I clicked "yes please!" without bothering to read the description. Then I read the description. Cue the music of doom sound effects. A book that takes place in 1400's Constantinople, present day Lakeport, Idaho, AND on a spaceship in the 22nd century? And lets not forget the Greek fable of Aethon that runs throughout the entire 600 plus pages of the novel. What on earth have I gotten myself into this time? This book is so much out of my reading wheelhouse.

But Mr. Doerr does not disappoint. Six points of view spanning 800 years! This would be a train wreck in the hands of a lesser author. The book grabbed me from the beginning and never let go. While I enjoyed some story lines better than others, they all held my attention. The author did an amazing job of weaving the stories together and producing a satisfying ending. Plot and prose are equally excellent.

The novel fairly rapidly switches between the various points of view. This did not bother me but rather added to the suspense of the various story lines. The novel begins in present day small town Idaho. Zeno is in his mid-80's and was a POW during the Vietnam war. He is helping some children put on a play at the local library. Seymour is a teen "on the spectrum" who is very upset by the development and deforestation in his town. He joins a group of environmental activists. His story intersects with Zeno's with horrible consequences. We move on to Constantinople with the stories of Anna and Omeir. She lives in Constantinople, which is about to be taken over by the Ottoman Empire. Omeir is a reluctant part of this siege. Their stories eventually collide as well. Next we are on the spaceship Argos which is bound for the planet Beta Oph2, still many light years away. This is the story of a young girl named Konstance and her survival of a deadly plague (shades of Covid) on the ship. The final plot is a fictionalized Greek fable about a man named Aethon who wants to leave his life and become a bird. The fable is the common thread that runs through the three time frames.

This is a challenging review to write. It is hard to do justice to the amazing storytelling and Mr. Doerr's ability to pull all of these story lines together into a cohesive whole. If you read this review and come away thinking that this is not your type of novel, I encourage you to keep an open mind. The author states that this is an ode to librarians. It is also a gift to readers. This is the type of novel that you can read at different points in life and come away with a new perspective. It is worth your time to read the 637 pages. The definition of Cloud Cuckoo Land is a state of unrealistic idealism or over-optimistic fantasy. Mr. Doerr is neither unrealistic or over-optimistic in his execution of his latest novel.