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Cloud Atlas

The epic bestseller, shortlisted for the Booker Prize

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Cloud Atlas

By: David Mitchell
Narrated by: David Thorpe, Garrick Hagon, Jeff Harding, Liza Ross, Regina Reagan, Steve Hodson
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**Pre-order UTOPIA AVENUE, the spectacular new novel from David Mitchell.**


CLOUD ATLAS, David Mitchell's bestselling Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel which was also one of Richard & Judy's 100 Books of the Decade, has now been adapted for film.

The major motion picture, directed by Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent Hugo Weaving, Doona Bae, James D'Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David and Hugh Grant.

The novel features six characters in interlocking stories, each interrupting the one before it: 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 Reagan's 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 other's echoes down the corridor of history and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

Mitchell's other novels are GHOSTWRITTEN, NUMBER9DREAM, BLACK SWAN GREEN and A THOUSAND AUTUMS OF JACOB DE ZOET, all published by Sceptre.

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(P)2007 RNIB Publishing©2005 David Mitchell Fantasy Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Fiction Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

Mitchell's almost comically ambitious novel is indeed a kind of cumulus: a wild and woolly condensation of ideas, styles and far-flung milieus whose only true commonality is the reincarnated soul at its center. The book's six nesting narratives - from 1850s New Zealand through 1930s Belgium, groovy California, recent-ish England, dystopian Korea and Hawaii - also often feel like a postmodern puzzle-box that whirls and clicks as its great world(s) spin, throwing off sparks of pulp, philosophy and fervid humanism (100 best books of the 21st century)
A magnificent tour de force
A novel of breathtaking ambition and scale, spanning continents, oceans and centuries
Funny, exciting, imaginative and energetic
A virtuoso performance . . . deeply impressive
The way Mitchell inhabits the different voices of the novel is close to miraculous . . . No other British novelist, to my mind, combines such a darkly futuristic intelligence with such polyphonic ease (Robert Macfarlane)
His most accomplished achievement to date . . . a novel in the biggest, most exhilarating sense
Gloriously inventive and dazzlingly virtuosic
A thrilling ride of a story
Tremendous . . . one of the most shamelessly exciting books imaginable
Stunning . . . One of those rare books that manages to be enormously clever while resisting the temptation to show off
Reassuringly excellent
Engrossing
Mitchell writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine, can evidently do anything, and his ambition is written in magma across this novel's every page
This isn't just one brilliant book, it's a collection of six completely different brilliant books
Mind-bogglingly good
One of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? modern classics that no doubt is - and should be - read by any student of contemporary literature (Dave Eggers)
Astonishing . . . essential fiction for the 21st century
Not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I've never read anything quite like it (Michael Chabon)
An intense, arcing colossus of a book whose narrative links, supplied by the voices of six main characters, are spun out into a unified theory of everything: history, human evolution, science, the will to power. The voices span epochs, continents, and genres . . . Mitchell has rightly commanded attention for the sheer breadth and energy of his composition . . . I am moved by (his) talent
It takes only a few pages of any part of this masterful feast of a novel to make you want to read the rest
David Mitchell may well be possessed of genius . . . As well-plotted, entertaining narrative, Cloud Atlas succeeds on many levels. As political and cultural fable, with an unerring humanist sense of the dangerous will to power that lies at the dark heart of man, it's visionary
All stars
Most relevant
I wanted to see if this lived up to the hype surrounding it. To be honest, probably not - I don't want to give spoilers but I found some of the stories a fraction disappointing in the end. It's not nearly as groundbreaking as it's been made out to be, but it's still intriguing and well-written. The different narrators all came across excellently - they were all read and characterised well and it was, overall, a very good listen. I enjoyed coming back to it each time and wanted to find out what happened in each story.

Intriguing

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First off, persevere beyond the first narrator who's voice is mono-tone and tedious. The other narrators are infinitely better and the story as a whole doesn't suffer too much when you get beyond that first reader.

It's an interesting tale which still seems more concept than finished article. The author clearly had an "idea" to do something different.. but ultimately settled for telling a bunch of very good, though fairly routine tales, the links between which are not really developed, explored or explained.

Mixed narration quality, interesting story.

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I loved this vast and powerful novel - so creative in its approach, it had me hooked although was admittedly a little difficult to get into. Stick with it - you will reap the rewards!

Stunning!

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From the opening of the book and through the various stories, the way the characters and the theme develop is cleverly manipulated by the author. Each story is left hanging as the book follows a hyperbolic curve and joins the tales again to their conclusion towards the end of the novel.

Well written, superbly narrated and subtly compelling; this is a must listen for all ages.

Wonderful Ride with Multiple Twists

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love this book it's like magic mushrooms . it's got truth and presence and full of connection. I've thought differently about my life and received insight.

beautiful enlightened story

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