海角大神

In this ambitious follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning 鈥淎ll the Light We Cannot See,鈥� Anthony Doerr delivers in a big way. A huge sweep of a story, 鈥淐loud Cuckoo Land鈥� features no fewer than five plotlines and as many key characters contending with big events, challenges, and questions.聽

In some hands, this could have been a big mess. The good news: Doerr鈥檚 creation lifts off quickly, soars, and then, like the various wildfowl wheeling through the story, lands with practiced finesse.

鈥淐loud Cuckoo Land鈥� may sound to some like a ridiculous title, but readers paging through the book鈥檚 opening pages will discover 鈥� or be reminded 鈥� that the name comes from Aristophanes鈥� 2,400-year-old play 鈥淭he Birds.鈥澛�

Here, 鈥淐loud Cuckoo Land鈥� refers to Doerr鈥檚 own made-up myth about a hapless shepherd named Aethon journeying to a utopian city 鈥渇loated in the heavens.鈥� Purportedly written by Diogenes in the first century, the tale threads through the book; fragments of text from recovered pages introduce each chapter.聽

In ways both subtle and overt, the myth connects the novel鈥檚 chief characters, all of whom face their own journeys in vastly different parts and periods of our world.

There鈥檚 Konstance, a 14-year-old aboard a ship called the Argos decades in the future; she shares her quarters with a filament-and-light Artificial Intelligence entity named Sybil. Part of a select group escaping climate-battered Earth for a habitable planet light-years away, Konstance faces the twin challenges of survival and fact-finding after stumbling on a mystery in the ship鈥檚 virtual-reality library.

In present-day (although pre-pandemic) Idaho, two very different men cross paths: Zeno Ninis, a Greek American translator in his 80s, and Seymour Stuhlman, a troubled 17-year-old loner who鈥檚 most at home in nature.聽

Elderly Zeno, lonely and buttoned-up, has searched for a sense of home and purpose since being freed from a prison camp in the Korean War. Seymour, who is increasingly overwhelmed by the outside world and devastated by the destruction of a nearby forest that offered soothing shelter, walks a darker road. The local public library 鈥� a place of refuge and possibility for both men 鈥� becomes their meeting ground, with potentially explosive results.

Finally, Doerr takes readers to 15th-century Constantinople in the months leading up to its siege. Orphaned, inquisitive Anna longs to read and cares for her ailing sister within the city walls. Twelve-year-old oxherd Omeir, a gentle soul conscripted into the Ottoman army with his two mighty oxen, wearily marches south. Anna鈥檚 discovery of the 鈥淐loud Cuckoo Land鈥� codex transforms her into both myth-sharer and protector. Omeir has a part to play as well.

Fueled by deep imagination and insistent compassion, Doerr weaves together his storylines with brisk pacing that never feels rushed. His characters struggle, search, and learn, mirroring the travels and trials of Aethon himself.聽

One of the joys of the novel is its vivid, energetic language. Birds and more birds 鈥� owls, terns, osprey, grouse 鈥� fly off the page. Embroiderers conjure 鈥渁 nightingale from thread and patience.鈥� A leering merchant hunches like a vulture. Letters are packed onto a parchment 鈥渓ike the tracks of a hundred shorebirds.鈥澛�

Aethon鈥檚 narrative plays two important roles in the book. First, the myth is an idea 鈥� an instructive tale about the hunt for someplace better: an aerial nirvana. Second, the myth is a form 鈥� first tablets, then parchment, then a codex, and later pixels 鈥� in need of translation and care.

With its emphasis on the importance of sharing and preserving stories, 鈥淐loud Cuckoo Land鈥� is, ultimately, an ode to libraries. These repositories and their keepers, Doerr asserts, play an essential role in introducing humanity to ideas and helping ensure those ideas endure.聽

Whether battered by war, climate disaster, or alienation, Konstance, Zeno, Seymour, Anna, and Omeir all strive for nostos, or 鈥渉omecoming, a safe arrival.鈥� And although their homecomings look very different, each prevails.

Writing in the midst of pandemic and lockdown, Doerr, in the words of Aristophanes, has successfully created 鈥渟omething big, smacking of the clouds.鈥�