Cloud Atlas

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Mitchell, David, Science Fiction / Mitchell, David
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Mitchell, David	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Mitchell, David	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Mitchell, David	4-week checkout	Due 04-24-2025
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Mitchell, David	4-week checkout	Due 04-16-2025

Recounts the connected stories of people from the past and the distant future, from a nineteenth-century notary and an investigative journalist in the 1970s to a young man who searches for meaning in a post-apocalyptic world.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

good book submitted by arla on August 2, 2012, 8:24pm really good

One of my favorites submitted by samanthar on June 17, 2015, 10:57pm Love love love this book. In the beginning I found the pace clunky and hard to get into. I'm not a fan of short stories. After the second chapter/story, I began to get into the book a lot. Once I was used to the writing style, I completely fell in love. The characters and their world is unlike any I've read about before. I can't wait to read more of David Mitchell's work.

Takes a little effort submitted by keebs23 on July 28, 2015, 9:23pm Your persistence is rewarded with a cohesive story of human connection.

Connected Stories of Connection submitted by Meginator on August 1, 2017, 7:37pm Cloud Atlas is a very ambitious collection of connected short stories exploring, well, human connection through storytelling, and it largely succeeds. The book is comprised of several nested short stories in various genres, each containing the preceding story as an item within it; in this way, Mitchell is able to tell stories about storytelling while exploring what that means and how we have used and might in the future use various narrative forms. He aptly juggles genres as diverse as a ship's log, a mystery, and futuristic science fiction, and each story feeds relatively gracefully into the next. It can be somewhat difficult to resume the narrative threads where they leave off (I often flipped back to the most recent paragraphs during the second half of the book), but each story stands alone and as part of a whole. Cloud Atlas is very well done and I suspect that it will reward multiple re-readings as readers discover more connections.

Fun and Adventure for the Mature Reader submitted by amandaberry on August 26, 2017, 12:44pm This is an incredible novel, not for the faint of heart. Unforgettable characters and riveting stories woven together into a stunning narrative. David Mitchell's writing will entrance you as he plays with narrative structure, dialect and genre.

The Best Novel submitted by vasi333 on June 26, 2022, 4:26pm This book has stood the test as my favorite novel of all time. The first section seems quite difficult to get through, and the abrupt end made me feel like I had a defective copy. But as others have said, persist and the novel suddenly blooms and clarifies, turning into a mind blowing interconnected story that makes you want to start all over again as soon as you’ve finished!

Interestingly Interrelated Stories submitted by hrgray on July 26, 2023, 9:50pm I really enjoyed the nested structure of Cloud Atlas, in which seemingly separate and different characters and events end up linking together and mirroring each other. While I think this structure pays off in the end, I found it a bit frustrating while I was reading since it takes a long time to resolve any single plot line.

not just a gimmick, it's a fantastic book submitted by hbcarter on July 29, 2024, 10:19am I thought at first that the nested structure was a bit gimmicky, but it absolutely pays off. You pretty much get each story interrupted mid-sentence as it jumps to a new one with a slight connection to the past. Mitchell has such control over the tone, making you feel like you might be reading a 17th century journal or a 1970s detective novel. When you reach the second half and all the stories come to their conclusion in reverse order, it's relieving and moving in a way I can't quite explain.

There's a lot of cruelty in this book, but more hope, in a way that doesn't feel saccharine to this usually jaded reviewer. Definitely in my top 10 of all time.