Cloud Cuckoo Land
by Anthony Doerr · first published 2021
17% recommend67% neutral17% critical
"From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of perhaps the most bestselling and beloved literary fiction of our time comes a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring novel about children on the cusp of adulthood in a broken world, who find resilience, hope, and story. The heroes of Cloud Cuckoo Land are children trying to figure out the world around them, and to survive. In the besieged city of Constantinople in 1453, in a public library in Lakeport, Idaho, today, and on a spaceship bound for a distant exoplanet decades from now, an ancient text provides solace and the most profound human
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I was going to say this – though I've only read it once, I'll certainly read it again. Loved how much it immersed you in the world. Recently I enjoyed Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr for similar reasons, if you're looking for recommendations!
on “Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?” ↗Not the commenter, this premise is a story line in Anthony Doerr's "Cloud Cuckoo Land" (2021). This knowledge is a bit of a spoiler, however.
on “Man wakes up after night on sleeper train to find it never left Glasgow” ↗Not a recommendation per se, but I recently finished Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr that has a rough tie in with Apuleius.
on “Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?” ↗…our understanding of the ancient world. And remember: if they hadn't been carbonized, they would have crumbled to dust. That's why we only have the texts that managed to get copied. (Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land is a novel about the survival and 21st century rediscovery of an imaginary Greek play, and ... I'll let you read it yourself - https://www.anthonydoerr.com/books/cloud-cuckoo-land) (Apologies for any…
on “Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the first scroll” ↗And then there’s Cloud Cuckoo Land. (Anthony Doerr)
on “Where did all the starships go?” ↗…switching perspectives every chapter - you're throwing out one of, if not _the_ biggest advantage of long-form narrative : the ability to get deeply into the head of a character. I had to stop reading Cloud Cuckoo Land because of this. And while I'm shouting into the void, this goes for you too, TV/movie producers: Just tell the damn story straight. If you can't do that and make it interesting, you need a better story.
on “Why octopuses are building small “cities” off the coast of Australia (2017)” ↗