The setup alternates from a siege in 1450s Constantinople, a tense scene in present-day Idaho, and a futuristic ship bound for a new land. Each learns of Aethon's story, and their journeys mirror stories of perseverance, even when discouraged or hopeless, as they find purpose and reason and connection through language, through stories, through books. This is a beautiful epic that doesn't turn away from legitimate concerns like climate change, war, identity, and acceptance, but even in these realistic treatments, offers hope, a way forward.
Doerr dedicates this work to the librarians across time, and Cloud Cuckoo Land is a fitting tribute to the role librarians play in societies. The interconnected stories represent the ties we have to each other, even if they can be tenuous and lost in a moment. But there is hope that, things thought lost forever, might just be hidden for a time.
Doerr asks us to reflect on what it is that binds us, what motivates us. How we can be contributing to the problem, but that we also are necessary, a part of the solution. How a timeless tale continues to deliver purpose and insight and offers new relevance.
This scope was dazzling. An author takes a risk at portraying such diverse characters in varied times and places, as the true test is where readers find their allegiances, whether they are unmoved by characters that feel like diversions taking away from the true storyline. I was highly invested in each character, so while I mourned the pause in one's storyline, once I turned the page I also delighted in getting to pick up the threads of another as Doerr cast a vision for what we each seek and long for.
(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)
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