A review by gobooksgo
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribnerbooks for making my year/the free advance copy of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. All opinions are my own.

I stan Anthony Doerr.  ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE is my favorite book of all time.  CLOUD CUCKOO LAND did not end up taking that title, but it was amazing nonetheless.  Doerr is a master storyteller and expert at taking seemingly unrelated characters and blending them into a compelling narrative.  CCL goes even further than ATLWCS and follows characters across generations and locations.  CCL tells the story of three different timelines: 1400s Constantinople, present day Idaho, and the not so distant future in space.  All of the characters have compelling storylines in my opinion.  This can often be the problem with books that follow different characters but it’s not a problem here.  

In this genre-defying book (historical fiction, sci fi, literary, contemporary, mythology) , Doerr presents a unique and creative story.  This could be considered meta-fiction (a book within a book), where the book ties the stories together.  Most surprisingly for me, this is a coming-of-age story that mainly follows young people (I often struggle with novels that have kids/teenagers as the protagonist - hence my general dislike of YA).  

Highly recommend!  Five stars!