I absolutely loved All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, so when Cloud Cuckoo Land by the same author was published in September 2021, I was so excited to read it. Then I started reading reviews and the sci-fi, futuristic thread turned me off the book. Years pass. I am looking for something to listen to and my library has an audio of Cloud Cuckoo Land available with no wait. I take the plunge. I fall in love with this book. Why didn't I trust that Doerr would not let me down?
Cloud Cuckoo Land is an ambitious book. There are five distinct story threads, some of which converge, spanning centuries, not including the ancient novel attributed to Antonius Diogenes (a 2nd century Greek author) but actually written by Doerr that connects all five stories and characters.
It is creative, historical, fanciful, mythic, and poignant. My favorite characters were those from the 15th century who witnessed the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire--Anna is a reluctant seamstress who learns to read Greek and unearths the Diogenes manuscript whose story of a shepherd who ultimately makes it to the utopia of Cloud Cuckoo Land. It is this story that provides an arc for each of the other characters--Omeir, a peasant boy in the Ottoman Army; Zeno a Korean War vet who learns Greek and translates the story into English; Seymour, an autistic boy who loves owls and just wants to protect them; and Konstance, a young girl on a spaceship in which she is immigrating to another Earth lightyears away.
I know it sounds crazy, but it was crazy good. It was lovely and thought-provoking. I particularly loved how Doerr connected these various characters together, showing the connection between people, their commonality. Despite their profound differences in time and space and culture, he showed how we are all connected to each other and our world. It was a beautiful message for our troubled times. It lightened my heart, and that is a very good thing.
