Title: Cloud Cuckoo Land

Author: Anthony Doerr

Publisher: Scxribner 2021

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 626

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR List

Set in Constantinople in the fifteenth century, in a small town in present-day Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel 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 Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.

Thirteen-year-old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in a house of women who make their living embroidering the robes of priests. Restless, insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds a 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. This she reads to her ailing sister as the walls of the only place she has known are bombarded in the great siege of Constantinople. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, miles from home, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the invading army. His path and Anna’s will cross.

Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno, who learned Greek as a prisoner of war, rehearses five 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. She has never set foot on our planet.

Another contender for Top Book of 2022. Doerr immediately pulled me into this layered story full of connections and lessons. (The short chapters really helped propel the story along from a writing format perspective) The stars of this book grab hold of the reader and demand to be considered important and worthwhile. We follow along for each of the five main characters slowly understanding their uniqueness, but also how they are just like all of us. I even ended up really liking Seymour (hard to imagine given what we know at the beginning). I completely understand him in a way that acknowledged that while he did something very wrong, he had been driven to it by a variety of factors. My favorite character was Anna. Right away, I knew what was going to happen in her city very soon (I did study history…), and I was there to see her survive and find ways to thrive. Throughout the book, we’re treated with the knowledge that all these characters are connected, but the fun is figuring out how. Unlike many other novels, we don’t have to suffer through “gotcha” moments or ridiculous twists. Oh, there are some twists, but they feel completely natural and expected (even if I didn’t sometimes see them coming). This was a beautiful book about the good and bad sides of humanity and the things worth saving. So alike in theme to Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, but so different in execution. He’s going onto my auto-buy author list.

Next up on the TBR pile: