Cloud Cuckoo Land by Pulitzer Prize winner, Anthony Doerr, is a challenging and ambitious read that celebrates the love of books, libraries, and librarians.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Genre/Categories/Settings: Myth/Historical Fiction/Science Fiction/Contemporary/Literary Fiction mashup, Books About Books, Libraries/Librarians, Constantinople, Idaho, Spaceship

Welcome to #ThrowBackThursday where I highlight an older review or post a current review of a backlist title. Today, I’m sharing a book about libraries, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Doerr.

I’m linking up with Davida @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog for #ThrowbackThursday.

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

My Summary:

[Some books are daunting to summarize and review. This is one. I apologize for the longer than usual summary.]

Cloud Cuckoo Land is four stories in one. The stories involve three different time periods and genres and one myth (a story within a story).

One story is set in the 1400s in Constantinople. There are two main characters. One is a poor thirteen-year-old orphan girl who lives and works with other women who embroider the robes of priests. Anna is curious and exhibits an insatiable desire to learn to read. She discovers the ancient manuscript of the story of Aethon who wants to be turned into a bird. The other main character is Omeir, a village boy who lives outside the walls of Constantinople. He has a cleft palate and is an oxen whisperer. One day he is forced to join an invading army and sets out with the soldiers toward Constantinople. His path will cross with Anna’s.

Another story is set five hundred years later in a library in Idaho. In this contemporary story, Zeno is eighty something and volunteers at the library and right now he’s helping children rehearse for a play adaptation of the ancient story of Aethon. He will cross paths with a troubled teenager, Seymour, who has planted a bomb in the library shelves as a statement about the environment and the endangerment of Owls.

The third story is set in the future and is about young Konstance who is on a spaceship called the Aros. Her favorite story is one her father has told and retold about Atheon.

The fourth story is a myth about Aethon and his fascination with the city in the clouds and his quest to be turned into a bird.

“A text…a book…is a resting place for the memories of people who have lived before. A way for the memory to stay fixed after the soul has traveled on.”

Continue here for my full review of Cloud Cuckoo Land…

---

QOTD:

Do you love books about books and librarians/libraries?
Purchase information here.