Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel
On the New York Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks * A New York Times Notable Book * A National Book Award Finalist * Named a Best Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, and many more "If you're looking for a superb novel, look no further." --The Washington Post From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, comes the instant New York Times bestseller that is a "wildly inventive, a humane and uplifting book for adults that's infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences" (The New York Times Book Review). Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of recent times, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope, and a book. In the 15th century, an orphan named Anna lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople. She learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds what might be the last copy of a centuries-old book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the army that will lay siege to the city. His path and Anna's will cross. In the present day, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno rehearses children in a play adaptation of Aethon's story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege. And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father. Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders whose lives are gloriously intertwined. Doerr's dazzling imagination transports us to worlds so dramatic and immersive that we forget, for a time, our own.
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Community Reviews
The Writer Anthony Doerr’s novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land is about different characters in the past and future interacting with the fictional Ancient Greek text by a real Ancient Greek writer named Antonius Diogenes (Knox 2021). The text is entitled Cloud Cuckoo Land in translated into English language by one of the main characters in the book. The character is named Zero, a Korean War veteran, who spent his retirement translating the fictional text by the real historical figure of Antonius Diogenes. The main characters of the novel are “Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour, and Konstance” (Knox 2021). Anna lives in 15th Century Constantinople present-day Istanbul, Turkey, when the city is part of the Byzantine Empire. Omeir is an animal herder who is part of the Ottoman military that is lying siege to the city of Constantinople. The lives of Anna and Omeir intertwine with Diogenes’ text. Zeno and Seymour live in the fictional town in Idaho which is named Lakeport. Seymour is a teenager who falls into the political orbit of environmental terrorists. The part of the novel that takes place in Lakeport happened from the mid-20th Century until the mid-21st Century. The lives of Zeno and Seymour intertwine with Diogenes’ text. Konstance is a teenage girl who lives on a spaceship in the future that the passengers believe is going to a planet called Beta Oph 2. The life of Konstance intertwines with Diogenes’ text. Anthony Doerr’s novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land is an impressive novel of intertwined lives with the fictional Diogenes’ text.
Works Cited:
Knox, Elizabeth. 2021, September 24. “Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr review – a joyous epic of love and survival.” The Guardian (United Kingdom). Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr review – a joyous epic of love and survival | Books | The Guardian
Reading this book felt like doing a puzzle with beautiful, imaginatively drawn pieces. You don't know what the final picture will be, but you know it's got to be something fantastic. The book requires some close attention to recognize all the puzzle pieces, but your patience and attention are well worth it, as it all comes together to form an intricate and unexpected picture.
Made up of three stories from different time periods that intertwine and spiral together, each story contains elements of homecoming, identity, and searching. Anna and Omeir are on opposite sides of the siege of Constantinople in 1453. Seymore and Xeno are on opposite sides of an accidental hostage situation at a library in Idaho in 2020. Konstance is the only survivor on a generation ship in 2145 (or so she thinks). Wrapping around and running through each separate story is the tale of Cloud Cuckoo Land, a fictional ancient Greek comedy that is found and lost and found again throughout history.
Anna finds a codex in a ruin on which is written the tale of Cloud Cuckoo Land, in which Diogenes tells the tale of his attempt to find the mystical world of the birds. Anna keeps the codex safe, and it disappears until it is next discovered some 500 years later in a vault of the Vatican. It is very degraded, but Xeno attempts to translate it as the pages are scanned in and released to the public. He tells the story to a group of children, who decide to create a play based on the story. Konstance is told the story by her father, one of the few members of the generation ship crew who remember Earth, which has become an environmental disaster. When the rest of the crew is killed by a plague, she pieces the story together on scraps of fabric, and ultimately pieces together the reality of her world. It is primarily Xeno's and Konstance's stories that weave together, but no part of any of the stories could exist without the rest.
This is truly one of the most creative and intricate books I've ever read. Doerr puts all the pieces together very well. And not only does he keep the whole puzzle together in his head, he writes lines like:
(on learning Greek) "Boil the words you already know down to their bones, and usually you find the ancients sitting there at the bottom of the pot, starting back up."
(describing the frozen north) "...it was so cold that when the hairy wildmen who lived there spoke, their words froze and their companions would have to wait for spring to hear what had been said."
Made up of three stories from different time periods that intertwine and spiral together, each story contains elements of homecoming, identity, and searching. Anna and Omeir are on opposite sides of the siege of Constantinople in 1453. Seymore and Xeno are on opposite sides of an accidental hostage situation at a library in Idaho in 2020. Konstance is the only survivor on a generation ship in 2145 (or so she thinks). Wrapping around and running through each separate story is the tale of Cloud Cuckoo Land, a fictional ancient Greek comedy that is found and lost and found again throughout history.
Anna finds a codex in a ruin on which is written the tale of Cloud Cuckoo Land, in which Diogenes tells the tale of his attempt to find the mystical world of the birds. Anna keeps the codex safe, and it disappears until it is next discovered some 500 years later in a vault of the Vatican. It is very degraded, but Xeno attempts to translate it as the pages are scanned in and released to the public. He tells the story to a group of children, who decide to create a play based on the story. Konstance is told the story by her father, one of the few members of the generation ship crew who remember Earth, which has become an environmental disaster. When the rest of the crew is killed by a plague, she pieces the story together on scraps of fabric, and ultimately pieces together the reality of her world. It is primarily Xeno's and Konstance's stories that weave together, but no part of any of the stories could exist without the rest.
This is truly one of the most creative and intricate books I've ever read. Doerr puts all the pieces together very well. And not only does he keep the whole puzzle together in his head, he writes lines like:
(on learning Greek) "Boil the words you already know down to their bones, and usually you find the ancients sitting there at the bottom of the pot, starting back up."
(describing the frozen north) "...it was so cold that when the hairy wildmen who lived there spoke, their words froze and their companions would have to wait for spring to hear what had been said."
Wow, I loved this book. The writing, the plot, the characters. The way the stories wove together with the fairytale as the binding ingredient was beautiful. I couldn’t put it down!
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