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![Cloud Cuckoo Land: The new literary fiction novel and Sunday Times Bestseller from the bestselling author of All the Light We Cannot See: Anthony Doerr by [Anthony Doerr]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dt5v1vDFL._SY346_.jpg)
Cloud Cuckoo Land: The new literary fiction novel and Sunday Times Bestseller from the bestselling author of All the Light We Cannot See: Anthony Doerr Kindle Edition
Anthony Doerr (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2021
‘A dazzling epic of love, war and the joy of books’ Guardian
‘Ingenious, hopefuly and totally absorbing’ Financial Times
‘Buoyant with humanity’ Daily Mail
When everything is lost, it’s our stories that survive
How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.
Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.
Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?
Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.
Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.
‘Wonderment and despair, love and destruction and hope – all find their place in its sumptuously plotted pages’ Observer
‘This engagingly written, big-hearted book is a must-read’ Daily Mirror
‘Serious novels are rarely this fun’ The Times
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFourth Estate
- Publication date28 September 2021
- File size2202 KB
Product description
About the Author
Anthony Doerr is the bestselling and prize-winning author of The Shell Collector, About Grace, Four Seasons in Rome and Memory Wall. In 2007 Granta named him as one of their 21 Best Young American Novelists and in 2011 he won the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Prize. Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho, with his wife and two sons.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Review
Praise for Cloud Cuckoo Land:
‘Sets him comfortably alongside Tolkien, Rowling and David Mitchell, and he is a much more elegant writer than two of those … Cloud Cuckoo Land is an impressive achievement and a joy to read. Serious novels are rarely this fun.’ The Times
‘There is a kind of book a seasoned writer produces after a big success: large-hearted, wide in scope and joyous. Following his Pulitzer winner All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land is a deep lungful of fresh air – and a gift of a novel’ Guardian
‘A paean to stories as a source of sustenance and solace, and to the sweetness of our shared terrestrial home, Doerr’s narrative is buoyant with humanity and it’s author’s palpable pleasure in invention’ Daily Mail
‘A humane and uplifting book for adults that’s infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences. Cloud Cuckoo Land is ultimately a celebration of books, the power and possibilities of reading’ New York Times
‘Cloud Cuckoo Land is a fascinatingly ambitious tale that’s worth the seven year wait’ Stylist
‘Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Doerr’s new novel traverses time and space, unifying his characters through a text written by Diogenes in the first century AD. Cloud Cuckoo Land begins there and sweeps through the millennia in a huge, imaginative arc that celebrates the outsiders, the writers and the keepers of books. An ultimately hopeful and life-affirming novel about the essence of love, literature and art’ Irish Independent
‘This is a dazzling epic of love, war and the joy of books – one for David Mitchell fans’ Guardian
‘Wonderment and despair, love and destruction and hope – all find their place in its sumptuously plotted pages’ Observer
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Book Description
From the prize-winning, international bestselling author of ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ comes a stunning new novel in 2021
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.Review
--Pamela Klinger-Horn, Valley Bookseller
"With threads that stretch from the fall of Constantinople to the far distant future, Anthony Doerr weaves a tapestry of wonder. Cloud Cuckoo Land rakes its reader's heart across the coals and drives us on across a beautifully embroidered plot so we might pay homage to the miracle of knowledge, of kindness, passed from one soul to another across centuries, a neckless of small lights in a sea of night."
--Ben Kemper, Rediscovered Bookshop
"And this is why we read! I should just stop there--I haven't felt this hopeful and alive after closing a book in a very long time. What does it mean to be alive? An ageless question, and throughout time the answer is always human connection and the stories we tell to live--thrive--survive. This book is a marvel and Anthony Doerr is simply a genius."
--Julie Slavinsky, Warwicks
"This is a glory of a book. As its cast of characters moves us across continents and ages from ancient Greece to the present and beyond, we fall in love with the best of them--and the worst. Cloud Cuckoo Land is impossible to put down and once finished, life-changing, the kind of book you hope will come your way but almost never does. An absolute masterpiece."
--Betsy Burton, The King's English Bookshop
"I absolutely loved Cloud Cuckoo Land. Doerr brings together multiple stories all connected by a manuscript by the ancient Greek author Diogenes. From the young girl in 1500 Istanbul who finds the original manuscript to the ex-GI in present-day Idaho who devotes his life to translating the text, to the girl in a future time, discovering it while aboard a vessel heading toward a new planet after her own planet has been degraded, these stories coalesce to show how a story can have the power through time. A very entertaining and powerful book indeed."
--Mark LaFramboise, Politics and Prose
"One of the markers of a great book is that it is transformative, and I can think of no better way to describe Cloud Cuckoo Land than to say it is a transformative reading experience. Epic in scope, it is the perfect book to remind us about the way storytelling is a key component to our shared human experience and uplifts our lives. Cloud Cuckoo Land is moving, it is adventurous, it is enlightening and just plain fun. This book truly has it all."
--Casey Protti, Bookshop Santa Cruz
"Is it possible that Anthony Doerr has surpassed the brilliance of All the Light We Cannot See? Cloud Cuckoo Land is an absolute marvel. Five sets of characters spin through three distinct time periods. An ancient folktale and a timeworn manuscript are woven gracefully throughout each story, binding them, and us, with ageless messages of hope and appreciation for love, endurance, home, books, and our planet."
--Gillian Kohli, Wellesley Books
"I savored the language and imagery of Cloud Cuckoo Land well before appreciating the aha moments of connectedness in the story threads. Reminiscent of the dear characters from All the Light We Cannot See, Konstance and Anna, Zeno and Seymour, and sweet Omeir captured my heart. What a magical book this is."
--Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany
"Cloud Cuckoo Land is ambitious, audacious, and a work of absolute artistry. Doerr somehow blends a multitude of eras and genres in a manner that is breathtaking and in the end creates a work of mythology of his own. It is books like this that make our business such a joy. We all read many books, but then something like Cloud comes along and we experience the same epiphany as Zeno realizing we have reached the culmination and completion of a quest."
--Bill Cusumano, Square Books
"As a seasoned reader, you are so grateful if once or twice a year a book falls into your lap that not only takes you away from the world but when you return your mind is filled with images, ideas, and a story that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Cloud Cuckoo Land is fully in that category. The intertwined stories from multiple time periods are bound together by the telling and retelling of a beautifully rendered ancient Greek text that I was certain was written by Diogenes but doesn't exist outside of this novel. That story, pieced together from fragments, becomes the chorus in this novel and adds depth, nuance, and an understanding of not only the story but also those who are listening to it."
--Gayle Shanks, Changing Hands Bookstore
"Words cannot begin to do justice to this novel. I feel overwhelmed by the brilliance of Anthony Doerr's writing. A master's writing course could be taught around what is inside this brilliant novel. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a bookseller's dream come true."
--Mary O'Malley, Skylark Books
"Cloud Cuckoo Land is a magnificent novel about the power of the written word. Its characters have a hunger for knowledge and stories that take us to unknown lands. All the storylines pull together perfectly to create a masterpiece. Anthony Doerr has kept the voice that millions of readers fell in love with All the Light We Cannot See--and has created a completely different, and astoundingly, even more beautiful story."
--Kristen Beverly, Half Price Books
"The characters are so well done--I was there with Anna! At first, I didn't understand the different stories but I told myself, Tony will make this work. There is a common thread. As the story unfolds I fell in love with all of the characters. Maybe Konstance is my favorite. Or Bunny--she was so patient with Seymour."
--Valerie Koehler, owner/girlboss of Blue Willow Bookshop
"Page after page, I kept telling myself 'just one more section' as I was drawn deeper and deeper into this well-crafted 'maze' that spans time, place, and people in a way that made time pass in a heartbeat. This book is a wonder and one that I cannot wait to share with readers."
--Rebecca Leber-Gottberg, events coordinator at Rediscovered Books
"I have been on such a magnificent journey with Cloud Cuckoo Land. What a sweeping epic. I loved it madly. Anthony Doerr's vision and the tender attention to the smallest details show the hand of a master at work. This novel explores story itself. The reader feels engaged and fascinated while being transported to a deeper awareness of our place and role on this planet. Cloud Cuckoo Land is storytelling at its finest. Wow, Wow, Wow."
--Sheryl Cotleur, Copperfield's Books
Product details
- ASIN : B08TRN6SD4
- Publisher : Fourth Estate; 1st edition (28 September 2021)
- Language : English
- File size : 2202 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 641 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0008478295
- Best Sellers Rank: 753 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Anthony Doerr has won numerous prizes for his fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Carnegie Medal. His novel, 'All the Light We Cannot See,' was a #1 New York Times Bestseller and his new novel, 'Cloud Cuckoo Land,' published in September of 2021, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Learn more at www.anthonydoerr.com.
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Customer reviews

Reviewed in Australia on 17 March 2022
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Top reviews from Australia
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This thematic thread doesn’t just run through Cloud Cuckoo Land, it is the one idea that holds up the entire edifice, a flimsy foundation for a monumental novel that is always on the brink of crashing down.
It doesn’t crumble. Anthony Doerr is a skilled and imaginative writer. He also built his opus as three distinct but interwoven stories, an interrupted narrative that promises depth - just around the corner, reader! - but mostly delivers scope. And lots of it.
Even summarizing the three stories is preemptively exhausting. Suffice to say they take place in different periods – the 1453 siege of Constantinople, a beleaguered 20th century and a distant future where humans travel to Mars, our civilization in tow. All three narratives suggest literature is our one redemptive feature as a species, yet the convoluted structure cannot hide that taken in isolation and read linearly, each tale is somewhat pedestrian in its telling.
To make sure we care – and it’s important that we do, there are over 600 pages to get through – the author repeatedly puts young people (and animals) in harm’s way. That slightly formulaic brand of melodrama worked wonders in uber-bestseller All The Light We Cannot See, but wears thin here, perhaps because the device is used ad nauseam.
Books are messages across cultures and eras, and we readers have a responsibility of stewardship. It’s a beautiful sentiment nearly crushed under the sheer weight of storytelling. At the risk of letting everyone down, I will relinquish my responsibility in this case and fail to recommend the book to others. Rest easy, though, Cloud Cuckoo Land is already adored by many and will be read long after we’ve left our dying planet and settled on Mars.

By Levi Huxton on 17 March 2022
This thematic thread doesn’t just run through Cloud Cuckoo Land, it is the one idea that holds up the entire edifice, a flimsy foundation for a monumental novel that is always on the brink of crashing down.
It doesn’t crumble. Anthony Doerr is a skilled and imaginative writer. He also built his opus as three distinct but interwoven stories, an interrupted narrative that promises depth - just around the corner, reader! - but mostly delivers scope. And lots of it.
Even summarizing the three stories is preemptively exhausting. Suffice to say they take place in different periods – the 1453 siege of Constantinople, a beleaguered 20th century and a distant future where humans travel to Mars, our civilization in tow. All three narratives suggest literature is our one redemptive feature as a species, yet the convoluted structure cannot hide that taken in isolation and read linearly, each tale is somewhat pedestrian in its telling.
To make sure we care – and it’s important that we do, there are over 600 pages to get through – the author repeatedly puts young people (and animals) in harm’s way. That slightly formulaic brand of melodrama worked wonders in uber-bestseller All The Light We Cannot See, but wears thin here, perhaps because the device is used ad nauseam.
Books are messages across cultures and eras, and we readers have a responsibility of stewardship. It’s a beautiful sentiment nearly crushed under the sheer weight of storytelling. At the risk of letting everyone down, I will relinquish my responsibility in this case and fail to recommend the book to others. Rest easy, though, Cloud Cuckoo Land is already adored by many and will be read long after we’ve left our dying planet and settled on Mars.

I often dislike books with multiple stories that are loosely connected, but this author stitches the different narratives together so cleverly, with such an unpretentious love of story. Wow.
Top reviews from other countries

...but.... but, but... when done right, a slow-builder that promises much can sometime deliver most. Multiple stories, when told right, can deliver multiple times the load. Cloud Cuckoo Land is ABSOLUTELY a quality read that doesn't fail to deliver and the mythical tale of Aethon's adventures tie it all together beautifully, even as it seems possibly "annoyingly quirky" to begin with.
There aren't too many "all in one" works of fiction these days, with a start, a middle and and end. It used be that fiction had this to aim for at least, but nowadays never-ending book-series seem the order of the day. To my mind, the best fiction is a story that builds to a knockout ending that leaves you dazed (and likely confused) by the end. This IS such a tale.
I still don't know if it all makes sense (well, I kind of know it doesn't / also of course it does) - but it doesn't matter. I still haven't thought enough about it to figure out if there are some inconsistencies or a coincidence-too-far in places. Part of me is looking forward to thinking on it for a long time to come and part of me doesn't want to over-analyse it. There's a lot to digest here, but sometimes, like a good cake, it's best to gorge and enjoy rather than spend time dissecting the ingredients, trying to find an element that could be eliminated. The little tangy taste you get from an isolated under-ripe raspberry can be just what's needed to raise the flavour of a slightly-too-musky dark chocolate. And maybe you don't like cream, but when it has just the right consistency, with just the right flavours flowing through, the whole is many times more than the sum of its parts.
That's not to put-down the individual parts of this book. Each, in turn is magnificently told and a lovely read. But, stitched together with "Diogenes's" thread, the whole is multiple times more special.
Thank you for restoring my faith in modern fiction.



Even though this is a long book, the many separate chapters make it fly by.
Well worth the read.
