I'm going to be honest. This was my 3rd attempt to get through Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.
And, much like watching Midnight Mass on Netflix, I am really glad I kept going! If you started Cloud Cuckoo Land and gave up (I can't be the only one, right??), then go back to it and keep going. When it all starts pulling together *chef's kiss*
My main sticking point was the really disparate stories: We had Anna in 1450's Constantinople, Omeir who was in the same era as Anna but outside the walls, Zeno - both the old version in 2020 in Idaho and the young version in the Korean War, Seymour in the same era as old Zeno, and Konstance who is hurtling through space in Mission Year 60+.
What ends of tying these folks together? A story.
Anna, a young orphan, is curious and learns to read, but there is very little to read where she is at. An old teacher helps her learn Greek before he passes. Anna is also resourceful and can scurry in and out of places, stealing what she needs to survive. When her sister gets very sick, Anna takes to stealing books from an old rectory to sell to some Italians who are trying to conserve the written word.
"One bad-tempered abbot, the tall scribe said, one clumsy friar, one invading barbarian, an overturned candle, a hungry worm - and all those centuries are undone. You can cling to this world for a thousand years and still be plucked out of it in a breath."
Anna uses the money to take her sister to convent for a miracle (FYI: Mercury is not a miracle), but her sister gets sicker. When Anna discovers a small book, she takes it back to her sister and reads to her to calm her. The story is Aethon and Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Zeno in present day is an old man, 86 years old. He's survived a lot, including being a POW in the Korean War. His second story of his time in Korea as a POW shows us his start in learning Greek but it also shows us that Zeno is not a risk taker, something he laments at the end. But it's also something he rectifies when a risk is exactly what is needed.
Zeno is encouraged by a fellow POW to do Greek translations. He is ok at it, until a small book from the 1400s is found, badly damaged and in need of translation. The story is Aethon and Cloud Cuckoo Land. Zeno works with children at the local library on a play of the translation and they are mid-rehearsal when Seymour comes in with a bomb.
Seymour is an atypical kid who struggles with sensory overload. He struggles with school, with people, with change. One thing he found to cling to is the destruction of the environment. A new housing addition springs up next to his trailer and his mom struggles to pay the bills, even while working 2 jobs. Seymour gets more obsessed with making people who destroy the environment pay, so he builds a bomb. Later on in his life, he dives into a translated story. Aethon and Cloud Cuckoo Land. He sets out to make his wrongs right.
Konstance is a 10 year old on the space ship Argos that is hurtling through space with a destination of Beta Oph2. She has never stepped on to Earth and will never leave the ship. She's 2nd generation on the ship and spends her time in the virtual library, wandering through old copies of Earth. When things get dire on the Argos, Konstance finds solace in the library in a story. The story is Aethon and Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Omeir is a village boy with a cleft palate (declared a demon by the uninformed) who is something of an animal whisperer. He's recruited by the Sultan to bring his ox to help take over Constantinople. His path is painful and arduous but it eventually crosses with Anna, who had to flee Constantinople, and she tells him the story of Aethon and Cloud Cuckoo Land.
So many separate, yet wonderful, stories. As we get towards the end of the book, it felt like it all sped up. You can see the threads that bound all of these characters together and, even when you booed a character, you cheered them on in the end. So much suffering is endured. Those left behind must endure the bulk of it. In the end, the story of Aethon, the fool who wanted to be an owl and fly to Cloud Cuckoo Land, bound them all together.
I'm honestly astounded that Doerr brought this all together the way he did and that he did it so well. All The Light We Cannot See was fantastic. Cloud Cuckoo Land is just as fantastic.
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