Cloud Atlas

By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks | Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize A postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in twenty-first-century fiction, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending, philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profound as it is playful. In this groundbreaking novel, an influential favorite among a new generation of writers, Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity. Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . . Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.

By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks | Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize This enhanced eBook edition contains never-before-seen footage from the major motion picture, behind-the-scenes material shot during production, and interviews with the author, directors (Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski), and actors (including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, and James D’Arcy) discussing both the book and the film.* A postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in twenty-first-century fiction, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending, philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profound as it is playful. In this groundbreaking novel, an influential favorite among a new generation of writers, Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity. Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . . Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon. Praise for Cloud Atlas “[David] Mitchell is, clearly, a genius. He 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.”—The New York Times Book Review “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 “Wildly entertaining . . . a head rush, both action-packed and chillingly ruminative.”—People “The novel as series of nested dolls or Chinese boxes, a puzzle-book, and yet—not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I’ve never read anything quite like it, and I’m grateful to have lived, for a while, in all its many worlds.”—Michael Chabon “Cloud Atlas ought to make [Mitchell] famous on both sides of the Atlantic as a writer whose fearlessness is matched by his talent.”—The Washington Post Book World *Video may not play on all readers. Please check your user manual for details.

Set against the magnificent backdrop of Alaska in the waning days of World War II, The Cloud Atlas is an enthralling debut novel, a story of adventure and awakening—and of a young soldier who came to Alaska on an extraordinary, top-secret mission…and found a world that would haunt him forever. Drifting through the night, whisper-quiet, they were the most sublime manifestations of a desperate enemy: Japanese balloon bombs. Made of rice paper, at once ingenious and deadly, they sailed thousands of miles across the Pacific...and once they started landing, the U.S. scrambled teams to find and defuse them, and then keep them secret from an already anxious public. Eighteen-year-old Louis Belk was one of those men. Dispatched to the Alaskan frontier, young Sergeant Belk was better trained in bomb disposal than in keeping secrets. And the mysteries surrounding his mission only increased when he met his superior officer—a brutal veteran OSS spy hunter who knew all too well what the balloons could do—and Lily, a Yup’ik Eskimo woman who claimed she could see the future. Louis’s superior ushers him into a world of dark secrets; Lily introduces Louis to an equally disorienting world of spirits—and desire. But the world that finally tests them all is Alaska, whose vastness cloaks mysteries that only become more frightening as they unravel. Chasing after the ghostly floating weapons, Louis embarks upon an adventure that will lead him deep into the tundra. There, on the edge of the endless wilderness, he will make a discovery and a choice that will change the course of his life. At once a heart-quickening mystery and a unique love story, The Cloud Atlas is also a haunting, lyrical rendering of a little-known chapter in history. Brilliantly imagined, beautifully told, this is storytelling at its very best.

Unlock the more straightforward side of Cloud Atlas with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, a novel consisting of six interconnected stories from different periods of history. Starting with the journal of a 19th-century lawyer, half of each story is told, only to be interrupted at a crucial moment, at which point the next story begins. The reader is taken on a whirlwind journey through the past, present and future, meeting a lovelorn composer from the interwar period, an investigative journalist with her first big scoop, a bumbling publisher trapped in a nursing home, a clone who takes up the banner of revolution, and eventually a tribesman in a post-apocalyptic world, whose story is told in full, only for the novel to cycle back through time, eventually bringing the reader back to that same 19th-century journal that opened the story. Cloud Atlas is one of David Mitchell’s best-known works, and raises powerful questions about the nature of time, identity and humanity itself. Find out everything you need to know about Cloud Atlas in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

In one virtuosic, mind-bending novel after another, David Mitchell continues to strengthen his reputation as “one of the more fascinating and fearless writers alive” (Dave Eggers, The New York Times Book Review) and “the novelist who’s been showing us the future of fiction” (Ron Charles, The Washington Post). Now three of his acclaimed novels—Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet—are collected in one extraordinary eBook bundle. Don’t miss The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell’s epic new novel about a fifteen-year-old English runaway who slams the door on her old life only to stumble into a supernatural war of good and evil on the margins of our world. CLOUD ATLAS “Mitchell is, clearly, a genius. He writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine.”—The New York Times Book Review In 1850, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California is befriended by a physician who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. In 1931 Belgium, a disinherited bisexual composer contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro with a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. On the West Coast in the 1970s, a troubled reporter stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder. The narrative jumps onward to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history—then boomerangs back through centuries and space, revealing how these disparate characters connect and how their fates intertwine. BLACK SWAN GREEN “As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall.”—Time Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor lives in the sleepiest, muddiest village in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But over the course of a single year, Jason discovers a world that is anything but sleepy: a world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons. THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET “Mitchell’s masterpiece; and also, I am convinced, a masterpiece of our time.”—Richard Eder, The Boston Globe The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the Japanese Empire’s single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, and costly courtesans comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancée back in Holland. But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken—the consequences of which will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings.

How can there be a book that maps these continents of clouds that drift apart, reshape their puzzle pieces, and coalesce into new geographies of air within one windblown hour? Donald Platt delights in enticing his readers with unique thoughts and questions such as this in Cloud Atlas. Being his second published book of poetry, the collection comes alive with elegance and refinement. Poems from this collection originally appeared in publications including The New England Review, The Best American Poetry 2000, Paris Review, New Republic, and The Kenyon Review.

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Rostock, language: English, abstract: The paper intends to show you the relevance of power and authority in David Mitchell's novel “Cloud Atlas”. To do so this paper investigates the different characters and their identities. Do they all suffer from a kind of oppression and what else do they have in common concerning the question of dominance of stronger people towards weaker? These questions will be answered in the first chapter of the main body. Here the reader has to expect an overview of the different actions of the narrators rather than a general study of their characters. The several forms of oppression and the dangers the main characters had, have or will have to fear will be outlined. Furthermore, some other aspects and terms will be mentioned and explained there in general, especially the concept of temporality and its meaning inside the novel. After giving you this review I will concentrate on two main protagonists, Adam Ewing and Sonmi~451. Here again, but in a lot more detail, I will highlight the relevance of colonialism, dominance and slavery in the cases of these two characters. Questions that guide these chapters are the following: What have the narrators done or what have they not done to escape from their fate and what is the solution of their problems? In addition to the previous issues and goals I strive to achieve I want to complete this term paper with a conclusion. This conclusion first of all contains a summary of the general aspects dealt with in the main body. Moreover, a thesis will be established that might be controversial and proper to be discussed in subsequent contentions with the same or similar topics and will of course have reference to the overall topic colonialism, dominance and slavery in David Mitchell ́s “Cloud Atlas”.