Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Anthony Doerr, the author of All the Light We Cannot See has a new book coming out on September 28 called Cloud Cuckoo Land. I’m very grateful to have received an advance copy from the publisher on Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

ORIGIN OF ‘CLOUD-CUCKOO-LAND’
“The word cloud-cuckoo-land denotes a realm of fantasy, dreams or impractical notions.

It is from Greek Νεϕελοκοκκυγία (= Nephelokokkugía), from νεϕέλη (= nephélē), cloud, and κόκκυξ (= kόkkux), cuckoo; this compound was coined by the Greek comic dramatist Aristophanes (circa 450-385 BC) in The Birds.” https://wordhistories.net/2017/12/01/origin-of-cloudcuckooland/

It’s amazing to me that The Birds was written 2470 years ago.

About The Book 📚

Title: Cloud Cuckoo Land

Author: Anthony Doerr

Publication Date: September 28, 2021

Publisher: Scribner (Simon & Schuster)

Suggested Reader Age: Adult

Genre: General Fiction

About The Author

“Anthony Doerr is the author of five books, The Shell Collector , About Grace , Memory Wall , Four Seasons in Rome and All the Light We Cannot See . His new novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land , will be published in September, 2021. Doerr’s fiction has won five O. Henry Prizes and won a number of prizes including the Pulitzer Prize and the Carnegie Medal. Become a fan on Facebook and stay up-to-date on his latest publications.”

My Review

“Stranger, whoever you are, open this to learn what will amaze you.”

› Cloud Cuckoo Land tells a story of how five characters from different centuries and countries could affect each other’s lives. Anna lives in Constantinople in the fifteenth century. She learns to read and finds a book that will change the lives of many people over the next six hundred years. The book is a Greek novel called Cloud Cuckoo Land by writer Antonius Diogenes and is about a shepherd named Aethon who dreamed of becoming a bird so he could fly to the magical city in the sky.

Two hundred miles away from Constantinople is Omier, living in a woodcutter’s village. Born with a cleft palate, he embarks on an unlikely journey during the siege of Constantinople.

Five hundred years later, Zeno is 7 years old when his father goes to war and he’s seventeen years old when he joins the army. He learns Greek as a war prisoner and as an old man in 2020 he has taught Aethon’s story to a group of children who are putting on the play.

In the same small town of Lakeport, Idaho, Seymour had a rough childhood living in a trailer with his mother, struggling with anxiety and feeling like he doesn’t fit in (I would guess he has autism, but I don’t think the word autism is used) and is now parked outside the library with a bomb in his backpack.

Konstance is a fourteen-year-old living on The Argos. Earth has been abandoned. There are 86 people living on the interstellar ship for decades, en route to a new planet.

How could a book connect them and cause life-altering changes in their lives?

“Fear of the thing,” Maher murmurs, more to himself than to Omeir, “will be more powerful than the thing itself.”

› I use the CAWPILE method to rate books.
0-3 Really bad
4-6 Mediocre
7-9 Really good
10 Outstanding

› Characters: 10
Amazing. Every single main character and every single side character has goals, strengths, flaws, conflict and backstory.

› Atmosphere: 10
I could picture myself in every single setting. Constantinople, the small village, The Lakeport Public Library, The Argos, are all described perfectly.

› Writing Style: 10
Love the writing style.

“Boil the words you already know down to their bones,” Rex says, “and usually you find the ancients sitting there at the bottom of the pot, staring back up.”

› Plot: 8
My one complaint is that I wanted longer chapters so I could stay with each character a little longer. This made it hard to get into the story for the first few chapters.

› Intrigue: 10
Once I was sucked into the book I didn’t want to put it down.

› Logic: 10

› Enjoyment: 10

Average 9.7

1.1-2.2 = ★
2.3-4.5 = ★★
4.6-6.9 = ★★★
7-8.9 = ★★★★
9-10 = ★★★★★

My Rating ★★★★★

› Final Thoughts
• An imaginative story about compassion, hope, hardship and resilience. Cloud Cuckoo Land is one of the best books I read this year. In fact, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. I haven’t read anything else by Doerr, but I will be! It reminded me of Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker and The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman.