Cloud Cuckoo Land

Doerr’s follow-up to his amazing bestseller All the Light We Cannot See, is different and intriguing in its own unique way, to say the least. From my own perspective, I was enthralled by his descriptions of the city of Constantinople in its last days before falling to the Turks in 1453. The myriad events Doerr weaves into an amazingly complex, yet ultimately “Oh yeah, that makes sense” story may leave some readers gasping for air, but his ability to create characters and set them in time periods and locales that give the reader a sense of truly being there rather… show more.

Right from the heart-pounding opening scene, I was all in. As with All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr draws the reader deeply inside his characters one at a time, then intertwines seemingly unrelated lives in intense and often tragic ways. How could the cast of "Cloud Cuckoo Land," an ancient story (coincidentally sharing roots with the Cupid and Psyche myth!), have anything to do with a young boy in 1453 Constantinople or an idealist-turned-radical in 2020 Idaho? You’ll see! Though the book’s length is intimidating and some parts are not cheery, CCL’s deeply satisfying ending offers… show more.

This is a time-travelling collection of tales braided through fragments of a Greek work of speculative fiction contrived so very long ago. I identified with all the book-loving characters from Constantinople in 1453 to small-town Idaho in the late twentieth century, to those seeking a future in outer space. I loved the fantasy and the adventure as well as the character's commitments to the magic and wisdom of written words, as well as to the translators who expand them and the librarians who conserve them.