Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell

Editions

Review

This amazing book naturally recommends itself to us at Sandoe's by the reference on page 149 to "the sage John Sandoe's of Chelsea".  But we are not alone in favouring the book.  Praise was lavished on it by reviewers, with the notable exception of the Sunday Telegraph, who found it necessary to mention in their gossip column that they weren't going to review it because their reviewer found it unreadable.

Like Mitchell's brilliant debut, Ghostwritten pbk £7.99, this novel is composed of a sequence of interlinked stories.  It begins with a pastiche nineteenth century travelogue; then comes a memoir from the caddish assistant to a composer in the 1920s; then a spoof California crime novel; followed by a memoir from a down-at-heel publisher; then a sci-fi bit with echoes of Orwell, and finally a section set in the far future where Mitchell  (like Russell Hoban in Riddley Walker pbk £9pbk £6.99) has forged a new language for his situation.  Only this is not the final section at all, but the middle one, for the book then consumes itself by picking up on each section where it was interrupted and coming to rest back at the beginning.  The ghosts of other writers lurking among Mitchell's stories enrich this marvellously original and exhilarating novel. - review by Johnny de Falbe

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