Cloud Atlas: The epic bestseller, shortlisted for the Booker Prize

I first read this book when it came out in the early noughties, and was blown away by both the inventive structure and compelling storytelling. I recently saw the film (a great adaptation, incidentally), which inspired me to do a cover to cover reread and it lived up to my memories.I'm a big believer in not drawing too distinct a line between "genre fiction" (fantasy, paranormal, sci-fi etc) and more high-brow, literary novels. This book is one of the best examples of the idea that it's possible to write a novel that both tells a fantastical story and does amazing things with prose, structure and narrative. The fact that it was nominated for both the Booker Prize and the X prize tells its own story.The book is almost a collection of seven short stories. With the exception of the one in the middle, which runs straight through, each gets to a halfway point and is then interrupted by the next story, which follows a character who is reading the text the reader has just read. Halfway through the book, it then starts working it's way back through the stories, completing each of them in turn. Throughout, there are hints that all of the stories' main characters may be reincarnations of each other (most obviously, they all have the same comet shaped birthmark, but there seem to be some overlap of memories and fears), but the author doesn't make it simple - the timeline doesn't quite seem to allow it, and some characters seem to be fictional within other character's universes.It's the intricate way that the stories fit together that I really love about this book, especially the little clues and the self-references, whether its a piece of music composed by one character that has the same structure, a character dreaming about something that happens to another protagonist centuries in the future, or a character wondering whether the journal he is reading (which readers have also just read) is a forgery, on the basis that some of what is said seems to convenient. This is definitely a book that benefits from a re-read and some close scrutiny of the text.That said, it's not just structure over substance. Each of the individual stories are beautifully plotted and written. The brilliant thing is that they are not only set in wildly different time periods (the earliest is in the 1800s, the latest in a far distant post-apocalyptic future) and geographical locations, they are also very different genres and written in a corresponding style. So the first story is meant to be the journal of a nineteenth lawyer on a sea voyage - it's written in diary format, and in the very mannered, formal language of the time, while a 1970s thriller is written like a pulpy novel, and so on. Mitchell masters all of these styles beautifully and has a bit of fun playing around with them.Most fundamentally, however, when all the stylistic cleverness and post-modern twistiness is stripped away, there are still seven good, strong stories. Inevitably, in this sort of book, each reader, even if they love the whole thing, is going to find themselves enjoying some sections more than others. For me, a story (told in the form of letters) of a debauched 1930s musician and another focussing on a rebel clone in a futuristic Korea are up their with my favourite stories in their own right. In particular, I found the latter story reminded my of Never Let Me Go, which came out at more or less the same time, but I actually found the Cloud Atlas chapter to be better, even though it was only one small part of a much bigger whole. The seventies thriller and the modern day tale of a hapless literary agent were also genuinely enjoyable reads. Despite my love of the book, I have to admit that I found the sea journal and in particular, the post-apocalyptic tale (told as an oral history, in a made up pseudo-English reminiscent of that in A Clockwork Orange) to be rather heavy-going. In those cases, while I still admired the author's talent and the contribution they made to the whole, I struggled to actively enjoy them. Interestingly, I've seen other people who feel exactly the opposite way about which stories do and don't work - they are all extremely well written and imaginative, beyond that, it's really a matter of personal taste. I would, however, suggest that if the first story doesn't grab you, you still push on and see whether you enjoy the others more.Finally, not content with both the stories and the metaphysics, the book as a whole has a lot of quite deep things to say about human nature, especially the destructive will to dominate others. As one characters puts it, "the weak are meat, the strong do eat." Various other interesting themes also flow through the book, enriching it without it ever starting to feel like a lecture.It's by no means the easiest read. You'll have to work a little just to get through it, and to get the most out of it and make all the connections, it's worth going slowly and/or re-reading. There are also likely to be some sections that readers don't enjoy as much as others. Nonetheless, I'd hugely recommend this to anyone who wants to try something different, to have their mind twisted, and ultimately, to enjoy a good story and some seriously impressive writing.

This is one of those books that has been on my book shelf for a long time and I've put off reading on a number of occasions for various reasons. It's too long. It's a Booker Prize shortlist, so it's going to be weighty. I'm not sure if I like the idea of connecting stories.Having read it now I wish I had done so earlier.Trying to explain it in under 300 words is hard. This is a book that is the sum of a number of parts. It is made up of six short novellas. All completely different, set in different times, written in different styles, about different things.Each story apart from the central sixth is chopped in two. It begins with "The Pacific Journey of Adam Ewing", which is cut short at 40 odd pages by "Letters from Zedelghem", which is in turn cut short by "Half Lives", that by "The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish", then "An Orison of Somni-451", then we get the full tale of "Sloosha's Crossin an Ev'rything after", then it works back down through the conclusions of the tales. The structure makes you feel as if you are witnessing something spreading out and then contracting, as the stories concertina outwards and then shrink back in on themselves. A series of Russian dolls.Each story leaps forward in time about 100 years, the first being in the colonial days in the South Pacific, the central story in a post-apocalyptic world an undefined time in the future.The stories are linked by the main character of each (which may a reincarnation of the previous) learning the story of the preceeding main character. Indeed it plays with the idea of communication and story telling, using the primary communication tools of the era each story is set in. Diary, then letter, then pulp fiction, then film, then hologram, then back to verbal storytelling. It is a unique and clever device, which at the same time binding the stories, sets each of them apart.It is such a vast and wide-ranging book, and while each novella could exist on its own and within its genre, it is the combination of them that makes the impact. From the first story, where we learn about the mistreatment of natives by the colonists, to the ruined world of the last, Mitchell provides a collage of times and images that get right to the core of what it means to be human. He discusses our self-destructive nature, our greed for power, our cruelty, and the contradictions of the beauty of friendships and of hope and family loyalty.This is a hugely ambitious book. It is a brave way of writing. It is never less than highly readable.On the front cover there are 2 award notifcations, one for the Booker Prize shortlist and one for the Richard and Judy Best Read of the year. This perfectly describes the paradox at the centre of Cloud Atlas. Mitchell has taken the most serious of themes and discussed them cleverly using the most basic of genre tools. It is a plan that is verging on genius.The downside of this is that he is so proficient at switching styles between the genres that he adopts, so convincing at each, that you get no feel of him as an author. Because the stories are so disparate and so faithful to the styles in which they are written there is no sense of authorial voice at all, in fact it is very hard to get a sense of the writer, he remains hidden behind the stories. But perhaps that is the whole point.

Surely a remarkable writing endeavour - albeit too baroque at times…… unfinished, unfortunately.What’s an intriguing, elusive build up of a complex plot, deflate disappointingly in the last couple of pages, with the author just giving his vision for a better world.This book delivers on many levels…… the ending is not there.

I was hooked with David's: The Bone Clocks and thus decided to buy this one, and all I have to say is that it is highly worth it.

A truly unusual book. It plays with conventional storytelling structures and tropes, and defies most of them. It traces characters across several lifetimes, and does it really well! That takes real skill, and it's also done in a very entertaining way. Through this complex story, the author makes a compelling statement about the nature of events, how one small thing can lead to another, and affect major events in the future. The movie (adapted from book) cannot hold a candle to the source material.

Cloud Atlas is definitely the best book I've ever read. The way Mitchell wrote this book is amazing. Each story has a different narrative is almost as a new book but connected with one another.The hardcover edition is beautiful.

comprato dopo aver visto il film, ma il libro è tutta un altra cosa. la lettura è veloce e scorrevole, la sua scrittura temporale ti cattura fin da subito.