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From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, perhaps the most best-selling and beloved literary fiction of our time, comes a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring novel about children on the cusp of adulthood in a broken world, who find resilience, hope, and story.  

The heroes of Cloud Cuckoo Land are trying to figure out the world around them: Anna and Omeir, on opposite sides of the formidable city walls during the 1453 siege of Constantinople; teenage idealist Seymour in an attack on a public library in present day Idaho; and Konstance, on an interstellar ship bound for an exoplanet, decades from now. Like Marie-Laure and Werner in All the Light We Cannot See, Anna, Omeir, Seymour, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders who find resourcefulness and hope in the midst of peril.

An ancient text - the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky - provides solace and mystery to these unforgettable characters. Doerr has created a tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness - with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us and those who will be here after we’re gone.

Dedicated to “the librarians then, now, and in the years to come,” Cloud Cuckoo Land is a hauntingly beautiful and redemptive novel about stewardship - of the book, of the Earth, of the human heart.

Title: Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel

Author: Anthony Doerr

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a sweeping historical novel that follows the lives of five people from different centuries who are all connected by a single book. The book is set in Constantinople in the year 1453, as the city is under siege by the Ottoman Turks. One of the characters is Anna, a young woman who is forced to flee her home and becomes a refugee. Another character is Omeir, a young Ottoman soldier who is tasked with guarding the city. As the siege continues, Anna and Omeir find solace in a book called Cloud Cuckoo Land, which tells the story of a group of people who build a new home for themselves after their own city is destroyed. The book inspires them to hope for a better future, even in the midst of chaos and destruction.

Review:

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a beautifully written and thought-provoking novel that explores the power of stories to connect people across time and space. Doerr's writing is lyrical and evocative, and he brings the characters and their world to life with vivid detail. The novel is also a powerful reminder of the importance of hope, even in the darkest of times. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a must-read for anyone who loves historical fiction, or for anyone who is looking for a story that will stay with them long after they finish reading it.

Author Biography:

Anthony Doerr is an American novelist and short story writer. He is the author of four novels, including All the Light We Cannot See, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2015. Doerr's writing has been praised for its lyrical prose and its ability to explore the human condition in a profound and moving way. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and the Ohio State University. He currently lives in Boise, Idaho with his wife and two children.