Anthony Doerr is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All The Light We Cannot See. In his latest novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has intertwined the stories of Konstance, Seymour, Zeno, Anna and Omeir. They span the siege of Constantinople in 1452, the 20th and early 21st centuries and a world many decades into the future. The characters are connected over time and place by the fragments of an ancient Greek story called Cloud Cuckoo Land by Antonius Diogenes. Doerr invented this text, but not Diogenes.
On his website, Doerr describes this book as his “attempt at a literary-sci-fi-mystery-young-adult-historical-morality novel.” It is all this and more. It is a tale of hope and sighs. This book is a wonderful read, full of mystery and surprise, that not only teenagers will enjoy, but so will their mothers and fathers. It will be a book club choice and a classroom read. Readers will connect with even the most flawed of Doerr’s characters. At the end, they will return to the beginning with great satisfaction.
Contributed by Maureen Millea Smith, a librarian at the Edina Library and a Minnesota Book Award-winning novelist
