Cloud Cuckoo Land

Cloud Cuckoo Land

by Anthony Doerr

Scribner, 2021. 626 pages. Fiction

From 1453 Constantinople to present-day Lakeport, Idaho, to a spaceship bound for a distant exoplanet sometime in the future, the lives of dreamers and outcasts are connected by their involvement in preserving a little-known work of Greek fiction called Cloud Cuckoo Land. In 1453, Anna and Omeir are two teens on different sides during the fall of Constantinople, where they unwittingly work together to save the little-known Greek manuscript from destruction. In present-day Lakeport, Idaho, a senior uses his knowledge of Greek to translate the tale, and in the process he enriches the lives of the teens at the local library. On a spaceship in the future, Konstance staves off the psychological effects of isolation by trying to record the tale, as it was told to her long ago by her father.

This much-anticipated novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See is beautifully written and captivating. Although the book jumps between about six different timelines, along with snippets of the Greek tale that binds each story together, the book flows with relative ease and doesn't get too bogged down or confusing. The result is a story that focuses on finding hope during times of darkness, and on how little actions can have big impacts far into the future.

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Crossings: Consisting of Three Manuscripts: The Education of a Monster: City of Ghosts: Tales of the Albatross

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Crossings is a novel in three parts, designed to be read in two different directions, spanning 150 years and seven lifetimes. On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence. With each new chapter, the stunning connections between these seemingly disparate stories grow clearer and more extraordinary. 

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