Photo via Simon & Schuster
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for his widely acclaimed novel, All the Light We Cannot See, and if it’s possible, his newest novel is even more ambitious. An astonishing tale of love, war and the joy of reading, Cloud Cuckoo Land has been longlisted for the National Book Award.
A soaring novel of great imagination and deep compassion, Cloud Cuckoo Land takes readers from 15th century war-ravaged Europe to a modern-day Idaho elementary school targeted by teenage ecoterrorists, and into deep space decades from now. It tells a compelling, interconnected story of five protagonists on the cusp of adulthood who are each living centuries and worlds apart but remain bound together by their mutual love for a single book.
The book’s title is based on a fantastical utopia in the sky, and the author deftly weaves together the lives of disparate children who all learn the ancient Greek story of Aethon, a shepherd who longs to be turned into a bird. Each distinct and very different voice in the story connects the seemingly impossible, as the young characters explain the particular perils of growing up in any time period from 1453, 1940, 2020 and 2146. Ultimately, this epic narrative is a story about stories that reveals how people find hope and resilience in the midst of chaos and fear.
The bestselling author will speak at a ticketed virtual event sponsored by Boswell Books, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13.
