It’s a book that constantly begs to be read. It is a testament to how good Cloud Cuckoo Land is that I stayed up late into the night, after a busy Christmas Day to finish it. What follows has repercussions for all the future narrative threads. Her story and that of a young outcast, who has an uncanny way with animals, will intersect during a siege of Constantinople. Anna is taught to read after being kind to an aging scholar.

In Constantinople hundreds of years before, we focus on a girl. Trapped by events, he grows ever older, unfulfilled until a pivotal moment. Late in Zeno’s life, in the most contemporary of the book’s narratives, his journey will intersect with the autistic Seymour a boy ostracized due to his “otherness.” His journey began in Idaho, as a young boy and took him on a harrowing excursion to Korea during the Korean War before he returned home, where he stayed. The theatre group’s leader is Zeno, an old man who translated Cloud Cuckoo Land from Greek into English how he came to do so is a huge part of his story. One pair centers around the fall of Constantinople and the other, a production of Cloud Cuckoo Land performed by some children in an Idaho tourist town. Other than Konstance, there are four more stories two linked pairs. Konstance is a 10-year-old girl on a generational ship, traveling from Earth to a new planet, 592 years away. One of these stories is set in the far future. The novel (of the same name) treats us to multiple perspectives from a number of different time periods, each of which has a connection point with the Diogenes story. At the heart of a narrative is an ancient story, a lost novel of Diogenes written in Ancient Greece. Yes you should!) What is Cloud Cuckoo Land?Ībove all, this is a novel about the power of stories. Nevertheless, it is so geekily good and I enjoyed it so much, I definitely think I should share the love, just in case you were wondering whether to read it or not.

With over 23,000 more reviews on Amazon, Cloud Cuckoo Land might be the book least in need of reviewing that I’ve ever written about for GeekDad. My last read of 2022 was a book I’d been looking forward to reading ever since it was first released in hardback to stellar reviews.

Book review cloud cuckoo land