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Sign up todayCloud Cuckoo Land
A Novel
Length
14 hours 51 minutes
Language
English
Narrators
Marin Ireland & Simon Jones
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“A beautiful tribute to the human need to preserve and share stories. One to read and read again! One of my Top 3 for 2021!”
— Samantha • A Great Good Place for Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Highly imaginative and incredibly ambitious, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a story within a story that is about stories. Though the premise, like the title, sounds maddening, I found Anthony Doerr’s novel to be rich, intricate, and deeply profound. Like the thread that binds together a vibrant tapestry, the story within the story, also named Cloud Cuckoo Land, weaves the tales of Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour, and Konstance as it defies time and space to ensure their stories endure. A love letter to the tales that have survived the cruel test of time and to the stories that take us away to magical realms above our own, those who’ve read Cloud Atlas and The Ten Thousand Doors of January will take pleasure and delight in Cloud Cuckoo Land. Marin Ireland and Simon Jones' narrations were the cherry on the cake, making the story all the better for their lively and delightful voices.”
— Nicholas • Mysterious Galaxy Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Anthony Doerr's novel Cloud Cuckoo Land is a triumph. This cautionary yet hopeful tale of five very different people obsessed with one ancient book will transport you to Constantinople 600 years ago, present-day Idaho, and to a spaceship a generation or two in the future. It's not too late to be good stewards of Mother Earth. Cloud Cuckoo Land reminds us that the children might just save us all.”
— Rachel • Avid Bookshop
Bookseller recommendation
“From the author of the much loved All The Light We Cannot See comes a very different and imaginative story. Doerr writes of the longevity of books and libraries and how they endure through time. Spanning from 15th century Constantinople, to present day Idaho (where he lives), to a 22nd century spaceship, one wonders how these settings and characters could possibly intersect. But, they do in surprising ways. This is my favorite book of the year. Enjoy!”
— Melanie • Bookstore1Sarasota
Bookseller recommendation
“This book is the best thing I’ve read - and the most complex and sophisticated - since Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Three story lines tied together by the mythical quest of a man named Aethon: 1400’s Constantinople, present day Idaho, and a futuristic voyage of a ship called The Argos! Suspense and adventure! With all the beautiful writing we admired in All the Light We Cannot See! A great book for falling into and emerging in a fog of wonder! That gushing sound you hear? Not the waterfall of your dream vacation, but me continuing to talk about this amazing book. I’m telling you: this is one you must put on your list. ”
— Belinda • Quail Ridge Books
Bookseller recommendation
“I loved this book so much. The intersection of the various stories surrounding a profound awareness of the importance of books was perfect. I also appreciated the weaving of the classic tale intertwined all throughout the book. Each character's story could have been a book all by themselves, but having them all together was brilliant. This is a book that I didn't know I needed, but was the perfect book for the time I listened to it.”
— Tim • Schuler Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Anthony Doerr's masterful epic weaves the fine threads of several storylines into an extraordinary tapestry. This book isn't just a celebratory ode to the power of words and books, it is a heartbreakingly beautiful lament for our threatened planet, like a sad song that you want to keep playing because you kind of like the bittersweet feeling it gives you. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a big-hearted, imaginative, and ultimately hopeful gift of a book sure to please just about anyone who appreciates great storytelling. ”
— Josh • Underground Books
Bookseller recommendation
“My teenage daughter and I both loved this book. It’s a book for all ages. Fascinating idea for a plot that takes you through time and ends with a twist. There are lots of characters to keep track of at first, but the story settles and maintains your interest. You will love and empathize with all the different people. It is dedicated to librarians, so there might be some bias here.”
— Kate • All Good Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Spanning from the final days of Constantinople to the distant space-exploring future, this is about how stories resonant across space and time. I know that readers will emerge from its pages grateful: for our connections with each other, how great art outlasts all of us, how together we are all writing one big story, imperfect and hopeful.”
— Samantha • Rediscovered Books
AudioFile Magazine’s Best Audiobooks of 2021
On the New York Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks * A New York Times Notable Book * A National Book Award Finalist * Named a Best Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, and many more
“If you’re looking for a superb novel, look no further.” —The Washington Post
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, comes the instant New York Times bestseller that is a “wildly inventive, a humane and uplifting book for adults that’s infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences” (The New York Times Book Review).
Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of recent times, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope, and a book.
In the 15th century, an orphan named Anna lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople. She learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds what might be the last copy of a centuries-old book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the army that will lay siege to the city. His path and Anna’s will cross.
In the present day, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno rehearses children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege.
And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father.
Anna, Omeir, Seymour, Zeno, and Konstance are dreamers and outsiders whose lives are gloriously intertwined. Doerr’s dazzling imagination transports us to worlds so dramatic and immersive that we forget, for a time, our own.
Anthony Doerr is the author of the New York Times bestselling Cloud Cuckoo Land, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and All the Light We Cannot See, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the Alex Award, and a #1 New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of the story collections Memory Wall and The Shell Collector, the novel About Grace, and the memoir Four Seasons in Rome. He has won five O. Henry Prizes, the Rome Prize, the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award, the National Magazine Award for fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Story Prize. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho, with his wife and two sons.
Simon Jones Broadway credits include: The Real Thing, Benefactors, The School for Scandal, The Herbal Bed, and Waiting in the Wings (Outer Critics Circle nominee). Off-Broadway credits include: Woman in Mind, Terra Nova, Privates On Parade (Drama Desk nominee). Film and TV highlights: Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, The Devil's Own, Brideshead Revisited, PBS's Liberty and HBO's Oz.
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