Anthony Doerr is back with a third novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land ($19, originally $30), which is bound to leave just as indelible of a mark on his readers as his previous bestselling novel, All the Light We Cannot See. As Doerr expertly weaves together the lives of five people living in different time periods, he tells an ancient story within a story about Aethon, who seeks to find a utopian paradise in the sky called Cloud Cuckoo Land. As each character faces the looming dangers in their own worlds — Anna and Omeir in 15th-century Constantinople, Seymour and Zeno in present-day Idaho, and Konstance a century or so in the future living on a ship flying through space — a story about the interconnectedness of all things in the universe unfolds, leaving you somehow feeling both deep despair and endless hope all at once.
Far from a beach read, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a beautiful novel that takes a bit of time to get into, but rewards those who persevere with a dazzling story that will stick with them for some time.
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