Cloud Cuckoo Land is a new favorite book. I have no clue what I was expecting going in because I selected this simply for the author. The story slowly u folded in multiply timelines from multiple points of views, with an old Greek story weaving them together. There’s Omeir and Anna in ancient Constinantinople. There’s modern day Idaho with a special little library, and Seymour who sees and feels too much. There’s flashbacks from a librarian to his youth. Then there’s the future and Konstance. Each of these timelines is revisited time and time again, with Doerr masterfully adding layer by layer to the characters with the result being a beautiful novel. I read in bits and pieces while on vacation and each time I was able to revisit the story was like being able to take another bite of a special treat.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to read this special book! Thank you to Anthony Doerr, NetGalley and Scribner for an advanced copy of this book for a review. I LOVED it.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a quiet triumph, slowly telling the interconnected story of five strangers and the thread that holds them together - Diogenes' story of Aethon. The story is told from each character's point of view, and it builds slowly. This story is not for the reader looking for immediate gratification. But if you're willing to settle in for the storytelling, the gratification comes, once you've stepped into the shoes and stories of Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour and Konstance. None of the characters is the traditional hero character, instead their routine lives are ones that get interrupted by the world around them, and each is forced to decide if they're willing to be compliant with the change forced upon or if they're willing to write their own part in the story, much like Aethon inspiring for more. Will Anna be more than an embroideress? Will Omeir be more than a oxen herder conscripted into a sultan's army? Will Zeno find purpose after a stint as a POW in the Korean leaves him adrift? Will Seymour take action against the people that have taken the one friend he has away from him? Will Konstance survive alone on the Argos? As much as the reader wants resolution for the characters, the journey is just as fascinating and beautiful as any destination where they could land. Beautiful storytelling once again from Doerr.

I just couldn't do this book. I got through 50% and realized that it might be better targeted to a Young Adult population of readers. I think High Schoolers might love it. I found the current day stories compelling, but I couldn't relate to the ancient or future ones. I wanted to finish it because so many readers have given it 5 stars because of the ending and the way the stories tie together, but I found myself skimming, and that's not fair to the writer or the story.

Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me a chance to read Cloud Cuckoo Land.

After 7 years of waiting, Anthony Doerr does not disappoint with his newest title Cloud Cuckoo Land. A 5 star novel that will stay with you long after you’re done reading, I wanted to savor every page. As illustrated in the book’s dedication “For the librarians then, now, and in the years to come”, Cloud Cuckoo Land pays homage to books and reading.

By interweaving stories from the past, present and the future, Doerr illustrates the connectivity of generations and the power of hope. Beautifully written and transporting plots intermingle together to illustrate adolescents on the verge of adulthood and the influence that one story, Cloud Cuckoo Land, has on all their lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the advanced readers copy and the opportunity to read this amazing novel that is sure to be the best book of 2021!

Great weaving of storylines. This book will keep you reading all the day long! I loved the imaginative way the story came together and in my imagination I was part of all the storylines.

Thank you Anthony Doerr for another book I will read every few years to restore myself.

I plowed through this in just over 24 hours. The characters and story are compelling, and kept me turning pages all day. I loved seeing the plot threads come together and weave into something beautiful. This is a fully immersive story; it plays out like a movie. I could see and hear Constantinople, Lakeport, Konstance.

That said, I figured out one major plot point very early on. That is not Mr. Doerr’s fault at all, I just read too many books and watch too much tv.

So far, this is in the lead for my best book of the year. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was not able to download the book correctly and therefore could not read it. I was really looking forward to reading the book. It was very frustrating trying to get the book to download to my Kindle

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

Read this book when you have the time to lose yourself for hours/days at a time because once you begin, you won’t want to stop. Five stars isn’t nearly enough for this ambitious, heartbreaking, beautifully written tale that at it’s heart is an homage to books and reading, but which touches on so many big themes in its wild ride back and forth from 1400’s Constantinople, to present-day Idaho and out into space where a group of earthlings hope to find a new planet to inhabit. The characters are real and well-drawn, the movement from the past to the future and back to the present feels seamless, the connections between the segments are slowly revealed, and the prose is beautifully poetic. This is a book that will win prizes, and spark deep discussions - it is about connection and hope, longings, and one’s search for a life that is both authentic and rewarding. This is a story that will stay with you for a long time after the last page is turned.

I am not going to give a synopsis of this novel, I would refer you to the publishers description. I can say that this story moves through time, place and person in a curious way. At first I wasn't sure what was going on, but the story draws you in and actually makes you think.
This is a wonderful book. It is a book of wonder. It is captivating and even educating. I loved it. That is all I can say.
I now feel moved to find out more about living in "cloud cuckoo land" and about ancient Greek playwrights. Prior to this book, they were never on my radar.
Enjoy!

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the early read.

I read and reviewed a physical copy of this, and wanted to leave a review here as well.

Wow. I knew going into this that I loved Dorr's work, but I was absolutely blown away. This takes everything readers of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE have come to know and love and mixes it with myth, magic and space. Doerr has such, SUCH a great way of writing believable characters and the way he details their relationship to the world around them is some of the best I've honestly ever seen. At first glance, this story doesn't sound like it would live up to the hype of his bestselling novel, but it does everything that novel does and then some. I fell in love with these characters, the myths, the mystery... and I cannot wait to see what Doerr has in store for us next.

Pick this up, immediately,

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The novel stretches from 15th Century Constantinople and Bulgaria to the middle of the 22nd Century in Qaanaaq, Greenland. What ties it all together? A single Greek manuscript describing the journey of Aethon, who “lived 80 Years a Man, 1 Year a Donkey, 1 Year a Sea Bass, 1 Year a Crow.” (And, yes, I have instructed my children to use that in my obituary.)

The main characters are Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour, and Konstance ... all dreamers and survivors. Each person, with their own motivations, does everything in their power to keep the story from extinction.

This is not light reading. It is 640 pages, and the ties between the characters ... and the manuscript and its tale ... are developed with care and detail. Even so, I never felt that the novel was plodding.

The book’s dedication is
For the librarian, then, now, and in the years to come.
This is so appropriate because at every turn we can see how a story can just disappear forever.

Even though very much different than All the Light We Cannot See, the characters and their stories are just as marvelous.


Thanks to Scribner Books and Net Galley for the eARC.

Doerr’s 2021 release of “Cloud Cuckoo Land” is a 640-page epic poem to literature and history. Spanning centuries in scope, he tells his tale through five separate narratives, two from the fall of Constantinople in 1453, two from the Twentieth Century, and one from the future as we journey to other worlds. All five narratives are connected by their work transcribing and translating an Ancient Greek myth filled with Magic and adventures. As you read this epic, you will be whisked back and forth between these stories and eventually shown their connections.

Each story is fascinating on its own. Be it Anna’s story as a powerless seamstress locked in the walls of the greatest city on Earth, knowing that the few soldiers left on it were scarcely sufficient to hold off the Sultan’s endless armies or his new siege engine and massive cannons. Outside the walls we hear the story of a young farm boy, Omeir, with a fearsome cleft who is shunned by all, later joining the great armies of the conquering force. In the Twentieth century we get the story of an odd young orphaned man, Zeno, who enlists in the Army to follow his father’s path to heroism, but spends the war in Korea in a POW camp, tortured and abused, and having his loyalty questioned upon return. Seymour is born to a single mother who is ill-equipped to deal with his autistic issues and scarcely knows what to do with his later environmental politics that he deals with Edward Abbey and the Monkey Wrench style. Finally, we get Konstance with a K, who is aboard a ship that will take generations, we are told, to reach its destination in the Stars.

Each narrative is touching and heartfelt and Doerr draws them all together with an Ancient Greek fantasy about a utopian paradise.

Enjoy the narratives for themselves, but the story as a whole never draws itself to an epic conclusion. And that’s the issue because, after this huge buildup, what you are really left with is basically the idea that we are all connected through history from our past, to the present, to the future. And, by the end of this volume, you kind of just wanted a little bit more.

I don't know how Anthony Doerr does it. He can take the most disparate elements and weave them into a fictional love song. In this case I feel like it is a love song to a book, to how story can inspire us and save us by reaching across time and space.
There are three tales in this book, not counting the Greek play that keeps popping up. Each is set in a different time and place. In the 15th Century we join Anna and Omeir at the siege of Constantinople. Anna is inside the city walls, Omeir is outside. In the present time a library is under siege as Zeno, an eighty year old, is directing children in an old Greek play. In the future Konstance, a child on an interstellar space craft, sits in quarantine reconstructing a tale her father told her.
Each story is real and gripping and somehow they all make sense together.
(This is a review of an ARC.)

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 4.5/5 Characters: 4/5 Drama/depression index: high!

Greek classics, a love of books and literature, and the twin pillars of human suffering and hope pervade this broad, sweeping story which spans interstellar travel, the siege of Constantinople, and eco-terrorism in an Idaho library. The published book description is actually very good, so I encourage you to read it directly rather than my trying to do an inadequate recap.

This is a beautifully written, deeply researched, cleverly interconnected story and by the end I was enjoying it a great deal. The characters are intricately done with their memories, desires, and deep need to survive, understand, and have agency in their lives. However, there is an awful lot of pathos for my taste. Before each character can succeed, there is an incredible amount of (too well) described suffering. This is not surprising — the siege of Constantinople is not a great place to be an orphaned girl with an antipathy for embroidery or a hare-lipped boy considered a demon by the greater population. But I clocked 65% through my kindle version before things stopped being utterly depressing. I did love the way literature and the classics were woven throughout, and I found the interstellar generation ship running away from a dying Earth thread quite interesting. The slowly emerging resolution of these independent threads was remarkably well done giving me an overall positive view of the book.

This is a strong and brilliantly executed book. If you loved his Pulitzer Prize winning All the Light You Cannot See, you will likely love this as well.

A little bit of fantasy, whimsy, and magic in this tale but very real at the same time. For fans of All the Lights You Cannot See, but also vastly different from that title of the same time. Writing is fantastic as it is Anthony Doerr.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr is amazing. I usually avoid superlatives in my reviews because they can sound fake but I honestly loved this book and it is hands down my favorite so far in 2021 (out of 72 books). There are five different characters / points of view and three significantly different timelines. The timelines move at different paces and cover different amounts of time and also feel like they are different genres. Libraries, librarians and books are a big part of each storyline. It really felt like reading multiple must-read-one-more-chapter page-turners at one time. And they all fit together and make sense at the end, without feeling contrived. There was one small unanswered question I was left with but actually one of the characters was left with the same so was likely intentional and it was really a minor point. I couldn’t stop reading last night until I finished but wish now I had saved some for today. Thanks to Net Galley and to Scribner for the advanced copy to read and review. This book is expected to be published at the end of September 2021.

Well, the title is right. As others have noted, this is a book covering an almost unfathomable amount of ground, both in time and in the number of POVs. I was really looking forward to the challenge, having heard such good things about this author. But this book was impenetrable to me. Perhaps it is the season - it’s summer here in New England and there are many things competing for attention. It was just too much mental effort to keep track of what was going on and it felt like I was learning to juggle just to enter the story, only to have a new ball tossed in to manage every few pages. Too much all around, without the usual pleasure of being immersed in a story. That said, I will try it again this winter and see if it’s more suited to a quieter time of year.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book.

Thank you to Scribner Books and Net Galley for the eARC of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Antony Doerr.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a novel about an ancient text; the story of Aethon, and how it connects five different people together. You will meet characters from 1453 on into the future: Omeir, Anna, Zeno, Seymour, and Konstance. While reading the novel, you will have no idea how the story of Aethon connects the stories of these five people but in the climax of the story, the author weaves the character's and their stories together in a very precise way with a powerful message for all of us. I don't want to give spoilers because you would have no reason to read it. Let's just say that the message is one of hope, love, books, and our planet. With so many POV's and multiple timelines, I often found myself perplexed and muddled. The writing is beautiful but there is a lot of it!!!!! I believe this just may be the author's writing style. Many readers will find this mesmerizing but for me it was just too much. This is a long read and one that you can't binge. Overall, I enjoyed this read. It's a book that I know many will love!

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Cloud Cuckoo Land
By Anthony Doerr

First: What this book is not – it is not a "beach read", nor a fast paced high adventure. It is not a whodunit.

What it is: A long, exquisitely written, slow building story. But again, that is not the entirety of it. It contains many stories, taking place over vast distances in time and place. Mr. Doerr presents to the reader a variety of characters, who initially appear to be unconnected, and yet, as you make your way through the chapters, the connections unfold like the petals of a flower until the whole becomes known.

The stories take place in the distant past, in the present, and in the distant (or maybe not so distant) future. There are common themes: human belief that the world and all living things are on earth for man's benefit; that we are blindly destroying our world; that the human mind is not ever satisfied, always striving for something different than what we have.

I very much enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to any reader looking for a book that will stay with you long after you finish it.

Revolving around an ancient myth, Anthony Doerr’s characters like Aethon, the mythical hero, are on a search for knowledge. Zeno, war veteran, retired snowplow driver and translator of Ancient Greek, becomes a public hero. Seymour, sensitive lover of the environment and different from his peers, turns destructive in his quest. Omeir, shunned by the world because of his handicap, becomes gentle and protective. Anna, alone, fleeing from a city under destruction, becomes the guardian of the ancient myth while Konstance, another solitary female who travels through space, having heard about Aethon through her father, seeks answers in the myth. Two characters from the past, two from the present and one from the future proceed through the work, bound to the myth and sharing the tenacity of the hero, often encountering an owl motif. At first these diverse threads demand a commitment from the reader;. As the novel progresses, the threads merge and the theme becomes clear. Like the myth “what seems complicated at first” is “actually quite simple.” Staying true to their quests, the characters are rewarded; so too is the reader.