There’s something for every taste, but this pastiche is disconcerting at times. The narratives go from a historical setting, to a political study, to a mystery novel, to science fiction. The sections are also markedly different from one another. His story is compelling, but just when it gets exciting, the narrative ends. I was intrigued by the musician/composer Robert Frobisher in Letters from Zedelghem. Every time the narrative switched, I had a hard time reconnecting with the characters and understanding how they fit in with the previous stories. Some sections are more exciting and engaging than others. … The book’s theme is predacity … individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations” (Bookclub). … The ‘cloud’ refers to the ever-changing manifestations of the ‘atlas,’ which is the fixed human nature. This switching between times and characters is confusing, but of that, Mitchell said: “All of the characters are reincarnations of the same soul … identified by a birthmark.

You can take them apart down to the middle, and then you put them back together. (That part of the novel reminds me a little of Battlestar Galactica.) The stories are a lot like Russian nesting dolls. The story spans centuries, from the 1800s to a futuristic society in which clones are exploited and enslaved. This is how I read Cloud Atlas (2004) by British author David Mitchell. So, I learned to keep books, drinks, and remote controls nearby and I would just sit with her sleeping on my lap while I propped a book on the Boppy and read. I used to nurse her on the couch and a Boppy, after which she would promptly fall asleep. At the time, I was a new stay-at-home mom and had a tiny baby who didn’t do much but eat, cry, and sleep. My sister loaned it to me after she read it for a college class. Cloud Atlas, number 82 on the BBC book list, is one of the strangest books I have ever read.

Cloud atlas book series