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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
18,375 global ratings
5 star
68%
4 star
20%
3 star
7%
2 star
3%
1 star
2%
Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel

Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel

byAnthony Doerr
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Top positive review

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RobynJC
VINE VOICE
5.0 out of 5 starsA story to give you hope for the world.
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021
It only happens about once every 15 or 20 years: Poisonwood Bible. Lonesome Dove. Now Cloud Cuckoo Land: a book that I will talk about forever, a book that changed the way I think about the world.

How much should I write? There is a magic in discovering it for yourself, how all these pieces fit together to answer the most essential question we are all facing in 2021: is the world ending? And if so, how do we go on?

Anthony Doerr addresses this question in no expected ways: by telling the story of Anna, an orphan living behind the walls of Constantinople under siege in 1409, who climbs a rock wall to discover hidden treasures; Omeir, a "demon" boy with a cleft palate, who is conscripted into the invading army because of the strength of his beloved oxen Tree and Moonlight; the story of Seymour in Idaho 2020, a budding environmental terrorist after the loss of his beloved great owl friend; and of Zeno, an 86 year old man hiding in the library as Seymour plants his bomb; and of Konstance, on a space station hundreds of years after the end of Earth, hurtling towards a planet that she will never live to see.

And interwoven among them all, a myth of Aegon, the shepherd who longs for a better world, who sets off to find that elusive Eden in the sky, Cloud Cuckoo Land.

It reads like three stories in one; the story of Constantinople, Omeir and Anna; of Idaho, Zeno and Seymour, and of the space station, with Konstance; and amidst them all, the myth of Aegon.

There is writing so gorgeous that I had to stop and read it again; writing, especially, about the power of story itself, how stories can be magic, can save our lives, can give our lives meaning.

Above all else, this is a story about our longing for a better world, what we owe to each other in this one, and whether it is possible -- even a little bit possible --- to hope, in the face of unimaginable hardship, that a better world might still exist, maybe even, possibly, not so far away as Cloud Cuckoo Land, not so far away as the clouds in the sky.
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563 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Thomas Ascher
2.0 out of 5 starsIt's a Hodgepodge!
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2021
It's like Doerr was working on 4 different books and couldn't decide which one to publish, so he combined all into one and no editor had the courage to tell him to pick one or the other! I suspect the good reviews and great sales are based on Doerr's last book but time and more user reviews will bring out the truth of this one. It's a mess! That said, if you have the skill to use your Kindle's ability to examine chapters and jump from one to another, I think you'll enjoy reading the one book imbedded in the 4 that has some continuity, the one rooted in Constantinople.
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277 people found this helpful

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From the United States

RobynJC
VINE VOICE
5.0 out of 5 stars A story to give you hope for the world.
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021
It only happens about once every 15 or 20 years: Poisonwood Bible. Lonesome Dove. Now Cloud Cuckoo Land: a book that I will talk about forever, a book that changed the way I think about the world.

How much should I write? There is a magic in discovering it for yourself, how all these pieces fit together to answer the most essential question we are all facing in 2021: is the world ending? And if so, how do we go on?

Anthony Doerr addresses this question in no expected ways: by telling the story of Anna, an orphan living behind the walls of Constantinople under siege in 1409, who climbs a rock wall to discover hidden treasures; Omeir, a "demon" boy with a cleft palate, who is conscripted into the invading army because of the strength of his beloved oxen Tree and Moonlight; the story of Seymour in Idaho 2020, a budding environmental terrorist after the loss of his beloved great owl friend; and of Zeno, an 86 year old man hiding in the library as Seymour plants his bomb; and of Konstance, on a space station hundreds of years after the end of Earth, hurtling towards a planet that she will never live to see.

And interwoven among them all, a myth of Aegon, the shepherd who longs for a better world, who sets off to find that elusive Eden in the sky, Cloud Cuckoo Land.

It reads like three stories in one; the story of Constantinople, Omeir and Anna; of Idaho, Zeno and Seymour, and of the space station, with Konstance; and amidst them all, the myth of Aegon.

There is writing so gorgeous that I had to stop and read it again; writing, especially, about the power of story itself, how stories can be magic, can save our lives, can give our lives meaning.

Above all else, this is a story about our longing for a better world, what we owe to each other in this one, and whether it is possible -- even a little bit possible --- to hope, in the face of unimaginable hardship, that a better world might still exist, maybe even, possibly, not so far away as Cloud Cuckoo Land, not so far away as the clouds in the sky.
563 people found this helpful
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Alan Redrup
5.0 out of 5 stars Uniquely Wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2021
Verified Purchase
It was worth every minute of putting the pieces together in the beginning. How beautifully and creatively he weaves the tales of this story into one beautiful whole with an amazing ending which wraps them all up into one beautiful story. Too amazingly creative and wonderful to put into words that are adequate to describe. If you stick with it, you will not be disappointed! Want to read all his books now. This is the 2nd and I can’t wait to read the rest. I read a lot but have never read a more creative and wonderful book than this one. Thank you, Mr. Doerr for sticking with it!
118 people found this helpful
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Thomas Ascher
2.0 out of 5 stars It's a Hodgepodge!
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2021
Verified Purchase
It's like Doerr was working on 4 different books and couldn't decide which one to publish, so he combined all into one and no editor had the courage to tell him to pick one or the other! I suspect the good reviews and great sales are based on Doerr's last book but time and more user reviews will bring out the truth of this one. It's a mess! That said, if you have the skill to use your Kindle's ability to examine chapters and jump from one to another, I think you'll enjoy reading the one book imbedded in the 4 that has some continuity, the one rooted in Constantinople.
277 people found this helpful
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Linda Fulcher
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2021
Verified Purchase
Magical; lovely language; absorbing. Even better than All the Light We Cannot See. Recommend highly.
81 people found this helpful
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Klapaucjusz
3.0 out of 5 stars It gets better in second half
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2021
Verified Purchase
If this book was written by somebody else I would probably stop reading it after 25 %. But I loved author’s previous book (“All The Light We
Cannot See”) so I kept plodding through the chapters hoping for a good turn.

The first half of the book constantly switches between stories of 5 children placed in different geographical and time locations.The protagonists do not have much in common except they are all miserable and they all come in contact with ancient Greek fairy tale. But their stories, although sad, felt like simplified carbon copies of other books and failed to engage me. The constant switching of POV kept me from immersing myself in any of the plots.There was only one exception, I actually found a story of a girl in a spaceship quite intriguing and it kept me reading.

The similar technique of switching POVs worked very well in “All The Light We Cannot See”. But there was an unity of time and general geographic locations as well as of dramatic political events in that book whereas there is no unity of anything in stories of multiple protagonists in the current book. It gets a little better in the second half when I finally started to feel a little more attached to protagonists and at least some of the stories become more interesting and a little connected. Each of the plots could easily make a separate good book but mixed together they loose their impact.

I also did not share author enthusiasm for the Greek and his attempts to teach me it. Of course the scholars of ancient languages may feel different about it but for me it added just more boring paragraphs.

If there is some deep message in this book I have to admit that I did not find it. Maybe it is that all things are somehow connected or that “the word as it is is enough”. Or is it about the power of story telling? Whatever it was supposed to be it is just too much for one book.
145 people found this helpful
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Suzi
1.0 out of 5 stars The most ridiculous book ever
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2021
Verified Purchase
I hated this book. It skips around constantly. It is hard to follow. It’s like it’s written by someone who isn’t able to follow his own story. I kept reading thinking it would get better but it never did! Don’t waste your money. Not sure why it’s getting rave reviews!
85 people found this helpful
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Karen
1.0 out of 5 stars What a mess
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2021
Verified Purchase
I loved Doerr's book, All The Light We Cannot See. I so wanted to love this book, as I received a signed hardbound copy from my brother as a gift. I choked down as much of this garbled nonsense I could stomach until I just couldn't take it anymore and abandon it. It was boring. The characters weren't compelling. The storyline was disjointed. Some of the imagery was compelling, but that's it.
66 people found this helpful
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Teaman
1.0 out of 5 stars Meh! Fell for The prepublication hype anticipating All The Light quality. Disappointing.
Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2021
Verified Purchase
Tepid characters didn't evoke any investment of concern for them. They were flat and uninspiring and I kept losing track of their place in the story. The back and forth between eras and action that started and then was interrupted was annoying. All the Light gave promise to this book that was unmet. The starship section was entirely predictable but was of more interest than the library ecoterrorist. If you must read it, borrow it from the library and save your money.
52 people found this helpful
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Roger DeBlanck
3.0 out of 5 stars Not my favorite Anthony Doerr book
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2021
Verified Purchase
Anthony Doerr is one of America’s most beloved writers. I liked his story collections, The Shell Collector and Memory Wall, and I loved his memoir Four Seasons in Rome. Similarly, as did countless other admirers, I also loved his epic novel All the Light We Cannot See. In contrast to my praise of Doerr’s aforementioned work, I came away less enthusiastic about his first novel About Grace, and likewise I did not find his highly anticipated novel Cloud Cuckoo Land to be anything special.

It disappoints me to admit that Cloud Cuckoo Land is an ambitious slog. Its superb premise electrified my interest and indicated the novel needed its epic sweep of over 600 pages to capture what Doerr sought to explore: three stories that overlap and connect across several centuries, a story each for addressing the past, present, and future. I found compelling the story about Anna and Omeir from the 15th Century, and I also found interesting the contemporary story from Boise, Idaho about Zeno and Seymour. However, the futuristic story about Konstance on a spaceship traveling to another planet was groundless, tedious, and borderline incomprehensible.

The other aspect that made Cloud Cuckoo Land too convoluted to be memorable is the way Doerr kept splicing the stories into such little chunks only to prolong the drama, which was very predictable and anticlimactic. What’s most disappointing is that the story of Anna and Omeir was beautiful and could have produced its own novel. Similarly, the story of Zeno and Seymour could have also made a strong novel. However, combining them and dividing them into pieces and backstories over such long stretches of the characters’ lives made their vitality negligible and underdeveloped regarding certain aspects of the main characters’ lives. I would rather Doerr have given us two entirely focused novels: one about Anna and Omeir and one about Zeno and Seymour, while he decided to disregard Konstance’s story.

Nonetheless, Doerr’s writing is splendid and observant with gorgeous details and images throughout the novel, especially his recreation of Constantinople and the story of Anna and Omeir. The problem is that the beauty did not do enough to hold together the convoluted pieces of three narratives scattered so far apart that the end result was a long book with a lot of fine prose delivering a novel that not did leave an indelible mark. Cloud Cuckoo Land grinds to a halt due to its overly ambitious attempts of wanting to do too much, which only made the strength of its parts weaker in the end. Doerr is an imaginative writer with great skill and daring. I commend his efforts, but I felt exhausted and disinterested with trying to reflect about what was ultimately a convoluted novel.
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Robert B. LammTop Contributor: Historical Fiction Books
5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2021
Verified Purchase
I am one of the few people who thought that Mr. Doerr’s last book, “All the Light We Cannot See,” was good but not great. So when I heard that this one was coming out, I looked forward to it with the firm intent to keep my expectations under control. Let’s just say they were exceeded.

Is this book perfect? No. There were times when I thought I was reading a YA novel — nothing wrong with that, though it’s not my thing. I also thought that the use of people coming together while far apart was the same approach Mr. Doerr used in “All the Light…”. But it is nonetheless dazzling in its conception and execution. Mr. Doerr follows several different plot lines that involve characters in various parts of the world at different points in history, including the future. These characters and plots are seemingly unconnected, but as the book progresses to its full 600+ pages, they gradually connect to become a paean to the power and beauty of books. Anyone who’s read even one review of the book will know this already. However, these reviews have, IMHO, overlooked that the book is a beautiful paean to life as it is — imperfect or worse. I’m surprised that this aspect of it was overlooked, but it’s not insignificant and very uplifting.

The book is eminently readable; i was hooked immediately and blazed through the book in five days, notwithstanding a very heavy work schedule. It’s an idiosyncratic mix of historical fiction, science fiction, and other elements and at times seemed more like a YA novel — which I normally don’t enjoy, but did this time.

Surely one of the best I’ve read this year.
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