Cloud Cuckoo Land

Cloud Cukoo Land by Anthony Doerr is a masterpiece of storytelling. Combing historical fiction, contemporary politics and environmental concerns, and space flight Doerr has woven together three eras using one story of ancient Greek philosophy. 

In current day, small town Idaho Zeno is translating a set of folios by Diogenes - trying to save a story that is personally meaningful for others to enjoy. He is about to turn it into a play for a group of fifth graders to perform at the local public library.

In the fifteen century in Constantinople, a young orphan Anna, who lives a convnet-style life, is arguing with a stranger to teach her to read. While a shepherd, Omeir, is about to be recruited with his two oxen to mount a siege of a far off city.

And in the future, in a ship called the Argos hurling through space, Konstance is using the virtual library to explore the Earth where her parents were born. 

Doerr is an amazing writer who grabs readers on the first page and does not let go. This is an epic tale of humanity, the power of story, the importance of libraries, and more. I LOVE THIS BOOK! Buy a copy and start it today. 

Doerr, Anthony. (2021). Cloud Cuckoo Land. New York: Scribner. 

All the Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a World War II story from two different perspectives.

Marie-Laure LeBlanc is a young girl in Paris. Her father works at the Museum of Natural History. He is in charge of the keys - to all cabinets, rooms and safes. Marie-Laure is blind. She was not born blind, her eyesight slowly went away. Her father has helped her find her way around, including creating an exact model of the neighborhood she can explore with her fingers.

Werner Pfenning is a German orphan. He and his sister, Jutta, live in an orphanage in a coal mining town. Werner loves math and radios. He and his sister love to listen to a man speaking in French and teaching about science. Werner takes radios apart and fixes them - to the extend that people start hiring him to fix theirs. The Nazi leader of the town discovers this and has him sent to school to develop this skill.

The story is told in the current time and in flash back chapter of both characters. Both end up on the island town of Saint Malo on the coast of France near the end of the war. Marie-Laure at her uncle's house and Werner in the radio division that hunt for illegal transmitters.

Doerr has created a beautiful and heart-breaking book. After all of the novels set in WWII, this is a different approach. Both characters are wonderful and caught up in something too large to escape. Buy this book!

Doerr, Anthony. (2014). All the Light We Cannot See. New York: Scribner.