The Best Book of 2021 | Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Wow! Just wow! 5 stars, all the stars!

Where does one even begin to review a masterpiece?

Cloud Cuckoo Land is about a lot of things….about family, love friendship, books, war, libraries, history, the future, global warming and more! So many themes, so many layers to unravel.

We follow multiple points of view, five to be precise. That’s five plot lines plus an additional story within a story because why not?

The characters are fantastic! Zeno, Anna, Omeir, Konstance and Seymour, each brilliant in their own right.

What connects them all the reader wonders? I can’t really tell because that’ll ruin the reading experience for you but I promise it all comes together.

Our journey takes us from Idaho to Constantinople and further.

It’s confusing, you’ll want to know who these people are and why Anna’s chapter interrupts Omeir, where on earth is Konstance, what’s up with Zeno, and is Seymour all right? It’s hard to follow at first, but the audiobook helps a lot. If you can, absolutely listen to the audiobook!

Also, can we take a second to appreciate Konstance’s Atlas? I’d like one of those myself please. Actually, may as well make the whole library, but primarily the Atlas.

The prose is beautiful, but it was to be expected after what All the Light We Cannot See delivered.

Genre wise it’s mix of fiction, historical fiction, fantasy even science fiction so much so that I don’t know where it fits. Literary fiction perhaps? As such, it’s very specific and not for every reader, consider yourself warned.

I cannot sing its praises loud enough, I suspect I’ll uncover more things upon a reread. I’ve already ordered a signed hardcover first edition and shipping to my country costs an arm and a leg, but I simply must have one whilst they’re in circulation.

If you have any similar books to recommend, please do so. And if you haven’t read this book, what are you waiting for?

Happy reading!