CLOUD CUCKOO LAND

by Anthony Doerr

Anthony Doerr writes beautiful prose, and in Cloud Cuckoo Land he has perfected his craft. In the novel’s intricate structure Doerr develops three stories simultaneously, those of: Anna in 1439 Constantinople; Seymour and Zeno in 2020 Lakeport, Idaho; and Konstance on a spaceship sometime in the future. Sounds crazy, right? How could anyone, even the talented Anthony Doerr who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning All the Light We Cannot See, tie such varied stories together? Amazingly, he does just that, and masterfully.

Anna, desperate to overcome her poverty and to better her and her sister’s lives, risks her life stealing ancient books from an abandoned priory. Seymour struggles to make people realize they are destroying the world around them and decides that bombing his local library might accomplish his goal. Zeno, an octogenarian translator of Greek myths, is in that library with a group of middle school students on the evening Seymour decides to act. Konstance, many years in the future, works to piece together what exactly happened that evening and why. Each story grips you and Doerr ties them together expertly.

As I started to appreciate how skillfully Doerr intertwined the three stories, I realized that they all explored similar themes: the power of books to transport you from your present circumstances to an unlimited set of new adventures; the importance of one generation preserving and passing on the stories of previous generations; “knowing it all” isn’t possible; and, Utopias just don’t exist.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is rich beyond what I can describe in this review. I urge you to take a plunge into Doerr’s breathtaking novel and enjoy its bounty. (Liz)