Fear was my gateway to becoming interested in stories. My nanny growing up, a Scottish expat named Jackie with a fox pelt of red hair and a manic...
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Gregory Grannan, January 2, 2013 (view all comments by Gregory Grannan)
What a fantastic ride this book is. Author's use of language is very engaging. The stories he tells are also interesting and enlightening.
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Neil Shapiro, January 1, 2013 (view all comments by Neil Shapiro)
I usually find that books which feature stories within stories within stories also feature a lot of very visible seams holding the assemblage precariously together. CLOUD ATLAS not just pulls this off seamlessly but makes each story quite needed to properly understand them all.
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mindfulheart, October 18, 2012 (view all comments by mindfulheart)
Just saw the movie and read an except from a friend's book. Very well done. Love the transitions between different worlds and time periods. Hard to achieve orderliness among at least 5 different story lines but I think David Mitchell did it well. I will be ordering my copy from Powells and if the rest of the book is as powerful as the movie I will be ordering the other books by David Mitchell. Really looking forward to reading the rest of the book.
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Product details
528 pages
Random House Trade -
English9780812984415
Reviews:
"Review"
by The New York Times Book Review,
“[David] Mitchell is, clearly, a genius. He 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.”
"Review"
by Dave Eggers,
“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.”
"Review"
by People,
“Wildly entertaining...a head rush, both action-packed and chillingly ruminative.”
"Review"
by Michael Chabon,
“The novel as series of nested dolls or Chinese boxes, a puzzle-book, and yet — not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I’ve never read anything quite like it, and I’m grateful to have lived, for a while, in all its many worlds.”
"Synopsis"
by Random,
Now a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant, and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer
Includes a new Afterword by David Mitchell
A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles and genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Haruki Murakami, Umberto Eco, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction that reveals how disparate people connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.
“[David] Mitchell is, clearly, a genius. He 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.”—The New York Times Book Review
“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
“Wildly entertaining . . . a head rush, both action-packed and chillingly ruminative.”—People
“The novel as series of nested dolls or Chinese boxes, a puzzle-book, and yet—not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I’ve never read anything quite like it, and I’m grateful to have lived, for a while, in all its many worlds.”—Michael Chabon
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