Cloud Atlas [Paperback]

It's hard not to become ensnared by words beginning with the letter B, when attempting to describe Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell's third novel. It's a big book, for start, bold in scope and execution--a bravura literary performance, possibly. (Let's steer clear of breathtaking for now.) Then, of course, Mitchell was among Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and his second novel number9dreamwas shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Characters with birthmarks in the shape of comets are a motif; as are boats. Oh and one of the six narratives strands of the book--where coincidentally Robert Frobisher, a young composer, dreams up "a sextet for overlapping soloists" entitled Cloud Atlas--is set in Belgium, not far from Bruges. (See what I mean?)

Structured rather akin to a Chinese puzzle or a set of Matrioshka dolls, there are dazzling shifts in genre and voice and the stories leak into each other with incidents and people being passed on like batons in a relay race. The 19th-century journals of an American notary in the Pacific that open the novel are subsequently unearthed 80 years later on by Frobisher in the library of the ageing, syphilitic maestro he's trying to fleece. Frobisher's waspish letters to his old Cambridge crony, Rufus Sexsmith, in turn surface when Rufus, (by the 1970s a leading nuclear scientist) is murdered. A novelistic account of the journalist Luisa Rey's investigation into Rufus' death finds its way to Timothy Cavendish, a London vanity publisher with an author who has an ingenious method of silencing a snide reviewer. And in a near-dystopian Blade Runner-esque future, a genetically engineered fast food waitress sees a movie based on Cavendish's unfortunate internment in a Hull retirement home. (Cavendish himself wonders how a director called Lars might wish to tackle his plight). All this is less tricky than it sounds, only the lone "Zachary" chapter, told in Pacific Islander dialect (all "dingos'n'ravens", "brekker" and "f'llowin'"s) is an exercise in style too far. Not all the threads quite connect but nonetheless Mitchell binds them into a quite spellbinding rumination on human nature, power, oppression, race, colonialism and consumerism. --Travis Elborough --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'A remarkable book ... there won't be a bigger, bolder novel this year.' -- Guardian 'An impeccable dance of genres ... an elegiac, radiant festival of prescience, meditation and entertainment.' -- The Times 'His wildest ride yet ... a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill' -- Matt Thorne, Independent on Sunday 'David Mitchell entices his readers onto a rollercoaster, and at first they wonder if they want to get off. Then - at least in my case - they can't bear the journey to end.' -- AS Byatt, Guardian 'Mitchell's storytelling in CLOUD ATLAS is of the best. I was, appropriately, captivated.' -- Lawrence Norfolk, Independent 'The best novel of the year so far ... a thrilling ride of a story' -- Philip Hensher, Summer Reading, Observer 'Impeccably structured novel of ideas in many voices by a talent to watch.' -- Literary Editor's Best Books, Observer

'A remarkable book ... there won't be a bigger, bolder novel this year.' (Guardian )

'An impeccable dance of genres ... an elegiac, radiant festival of prescience, meditation and entertainment.' (The Times )

'His wildest ride yet ... a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill' (Matt Thorne, Independent on Sunday )

'David Mitchell entices his readers onto a rollercoaster, and at first they wonder if they want to get off. Then - at least in my case - they can't bear the journey to end.' (AS Byatt, Guardian )

'Mitchell's storytelling in CLOUD ATLAS is of the best. I was, appropriately, captivated.' (Lawrence Norfolk, Independent )

'The best novel of the year so far ... a thrilling ride of a story' (Philip Hensher, Summer Reading, Observer )

'Impeccably structured novel of ideas in many voices by a talent to watch.' (Literary Editor's Best Books, Observer )

'His wildest ride yet ... a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill'

'Mitchell's storytelling in CLOUD ATLAS is of the best. I was, appropriately, captivated.'

'David Mitchell entices his readers onto a rollercoaster, and...they can't bear the journey to end.'

'Impeccably structured novel of ideas in many voices by a talent to watch.'

'The best novel of the year so far ... a thrilling ride of a story'

‘Superbly entertaining’

‘His wildest ride yet … a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill’

‘There won’t be a bigger, bolder novel this year’

'Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies ...'

A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagans California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified dinery server on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation the narrators of CLOUD ATLAS hear each others echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

In his extraordinary third novel, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of language, genre and time to offer a meditation on humanitys dangerous will to power, and where it may lead us.

David Mitchells first novel, GHOSTWRITTEN, was published in 1999. It was awarded the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for the best book by a writer under thirty-five, and was also shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, NUMBER9DREAM, followed in 2001 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. In 2003, David Mitchell was selected as one of Grantas Best of Young British Novelists. He also returned to Britain from Japan, where he spent several years, and now lives in Ireland.