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Cover of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas

  • 537 pages · about 9 hours
  • First published 2004
  • 41 editions

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1 About this book

Cloud Atlas, published in 2004, is the third novel by British author David Mitchell. The book combines metafiction, historical fiction, contemporary fiction and science fiction, with interconnected nested stories in different writing styles that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the 19th century to the island of Hawaii in a distant post-apocalyptic future. Its title references a piece of music by Toshi Ichiyanagi.

It received awards from both the general literary community and the speculative fiction community, including the British Book Awards Literary Fiction award and the Richard & Judy Book of the Year award. It was also short-listed for the Booker Prize, Nebula Award for Best Novel, and Arthur C. Clarke Award. A film adaptation directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, and featuring an ensemble cast, was released in 2012.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: fantasy, science fiction, and a long read.

  • Fantasy
  • Imaginary Voyages
  • Fantasy, historical
  • Science fiction
  • Historical fiction
  • Fate and fatalism
  • Reincarnation

2 About David Mitchell

Born 1969

David Stephen Mitchell (born 12 January 1969) is an English novelist and screenwriter, who has also translated two children's books. He has written nine novels, two of which, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written articles for several newspapers, most notably for The Guardian. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2013.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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