Cloud Atlas
A Novel
Six stories nested inside one another, from a nineteenth-century Pacific voyage to a post-apocalyptic Hawaii, each one echoing through the next.
David Mitchell’s third novel, published in 2004, tells six stories in six different styles, nested like Russian dolls. They run from an American notary’s journal of a nineteenth-century Pacific voyage to a far-future Hawaii after civilization has collapsed, then return through each tale in reverse. The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Nebula Award, and it was adapted for film in 2012 by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer.
Recommended by 1 Person
Naomi Klein
Another form-defying work. Mitchell leaps across space and time to tell six seemingly disconnected stories in different styles. "Only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounted to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean," one of his characters writes. "Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?"
Article · August 2017
As an Amazon Associate, bookstoread.org earns from qualifying purchases. Links to Amazon on this page may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Spotted an error on this page? Tell us and we will fix it.