By various mishaps and trickery, Aethon has to spend time as a donkey and a fish – a mistreated domestic beast of burden and a wandering, then trapped, wild animal. To get to the city and enter it, Aethon must be a bird and not a human, since humans are wreckers and ruiners expressly banned from this wonderful utopia. Aethon longs to travel to a rumoured paradise, a city in the sky populated by birds.

It tells of a shepherd, Aethon, known by his neighbours as “a dull-witted mutton-headed lamebrain”.

Antonius Diogenes’ Cloud Cuckoo Land is a fabulous adventure story written by Diogenes for his niece, to beguile and console her during an illness. The story crystallises around a book within a book, the existence of which is imagined by Doerr, though its author is a real writer of the ancient world. Following his Pulitzer winner All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land is a deep lungful of fresh air – and a gift of a novel. T here is a kind of book a seasoned writer produces after a big success: large-hearted, wide in scope and joyous. You can find her book reviews and recommendations.

Sherri Puzey is an editor at Zibby Mag and a marketing manager at Zibby Books. I highly recommend this one for book lovers or for anyone who simply loves getting lost in a well-crafted and absorbing story. At its heart, it’s a book about stories: how they draw us in and connect us–and even change us. I absolutely love Doerr’s writing and am in awe of his creativity in developing this story and tying it all together. I had high expectations for this one and really enjoyed it! Even though the length (over 600 pages!) is a little daunting, the alternation between the characters and time periods provides excellent pacing. The common thread through these stories is an ancient text about a man who longs to travel to a utopia somewhere in the sky. CLOUD CUCKOO LAND is the much-anticipated novel from Anthony Doerr, author of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, which I loved! His latest novel (now out in paperback!) weaves together characters and stories from three distinct times: 1400s Constantinople, present-day Idaho, and an interstellar ship decades in the future.

Review cloud cuckoo land