A perfectly poised Rubik’s Cube of a novel that explodes ideas of what the form can achieve, Cloud Atlas travels through a buccaneering past and a chill dystopian future to interweave six fragmentary but eminently credible narratives into a stunningly realised whole.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2004
How vulgar, this hankering after immortality, how vain, how false.
Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies…
Six interlocking lives - one amazing adventure. In a narrative that circles the globe and reaches from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future, Cloud Atlas erases the boundaries of time, genre and language to offer an enthralling vision of humanity's will to power, and where it will lead us.
*Please note that the end of p39 and p40 are intentionally blank*
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 9780340822784
Number of pages: 544
Weight: 420 g
Dimensions: 196 x 128 x 38 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Remarkable . . . it knits together science fiction, political thriller and historical pastiche with musical virtuosity and linguistic exuberance - Guardian
An impeccable dance of genres . . . an elegiac, radiant festival of prescience, meditation and entertainment - The Times
His wildest ride yet . . . a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill - Independent on Sunday
David Mitchell entices his readers onto a rollercoaster, and at first they wonder if they want to get off. Then - at least in my case - they can't bear the journey to end - A. S. Byatt, Guardian
A magnificent tour de force - Time Out
A glorious puzzle for the reader . . . Mitchell's storytelling in Cloud Atlas is of the best - Independent
An impeccably structured novel of ideas in many voices - Literary Editor's Best Books, Observer
A novel of breathtaking ambition and scale, spanning continents, oceans and centuries - Independent
Funny, exciting, imaginative and energetic - Evening Standard
A virtuoso performance . . . deeply impressive - Daily Telegraph
The way Mitchell inhabits the different voices of the novel is close to miraculous . . . No other British novelist, to my mind, combines such a darkly futuristic intelligence with such polyphonic ease - Robert Macfarlane, Sunday Times
His most accomplished achievement to date . . . a novel in the biggest, most exhilarating sense - Observer
Gloriously inventive and dazzlingly virtuosic - Independent on Sunday
A thrilling ride of a story - Observer
Tremendous . . . one of the most shamelessly exciting books imaginable - Spectator
Stunning . . . One of those rare books that manages to be enormously clever while resisting the temptation to show off - Daily Mail
Reassuringly excellent - Times Literary Supplement
Engrossing - Financial Times
Mitchell writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine, can evidently do anything, and his ambition is written in magma across this novel's every page - New York Times Book Review
This isn't just one brilliant book, it's a collection of six completely different brilliant books - Sunday Independent
Mind-bogglingly good - Elle
One of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? modern classics that no doubt is - and should be - read by any student of contemporary literature - Dave Eggers
Astonishing . . . essential fiction for the 21st century - Independent
Not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I've never read anything quite like it - Michael Chabon
An intense, arcing colossus of a book whose narrative links, supplied by the voices of six main characters, are spun out into a unified theory of everything: history, human evolution, science, the will to power. The voices span epochs, continents, and genres . . . Mitchell has rightly commanded attention for the sheer breadth and energy of his composition . . . I am moved by (his) talent - Prospect
It takes only a few pages of any part of this masterful feast of a novel to make you want to read the rest - Evening Standard
David Mitchell may well be possessed of genius . . . As well-plotted, entertaining narrative, Cloud Atlas succeeds on many levels. As political and cultural fable, with an unerring humanist sense of the dangerous will to power that lies at the dark heart of man, it's visionary - Irish Independent
As mind-bending in its ideas as it is accessible on the page . . . It pretty much resists hyperbole simply by being better than you'd ever dare hope - Big Issue
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“Very thought-provoking”
An intriguing read from a wide range of perspectives, there's something for everyone in what I found to be a fantastic novel. It's incredibly interesting to see how well the character's lives intertwine... More
“dont bother”
We chose this for our book group. Everyone struggled to read the book, and no-one got the point or felt that any link had been established between the disjointed 'books' that made up the whole. Within the... More
“Brilliant!”
Amazing novel - very intricate and gave me lots to think about
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