Cloud Atlas

A Novel

By: David Mitchell

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne, John Lee, Richard Matthews

Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

By the New York Times best-selling author of The Bone Clocks

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

A postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in 21st-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 neo-capitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a post-apocalyptic 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.

List of readers:

• The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, read by Scott Brick
• Letters from Zedelghem, read by Richard Matthews
• Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery, read by Cassandra Campbell
• The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, read by John Lee
• An Orison of Sonmi-451, read by Kim Mai Guest
• Sloosha’s Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After, read by Kirby Heyborne

This audiobook is available exclusively as an audio download!

Note to customers: The complicated format of this novel makes it seem that the audio may be cutting off before the end of a story, accompanied by a change in narrator. However, this is the author's intention, so please continue to listen, and the stories will conclude themselves as intended.

©2004 David Mitchell (P)2004 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

• 2005 Audie Award Nominee, Literary Fiction

"[Mitchell's] exuberant, Nabokovian delight in word play; his provocative grapplings with the great unknowables; and most of all his masterful storytelling: all coalesce to make Cloud Atlas an exciting, almost overwhelming masterpiece." ( Washington Times)

"[ Cloud Atlas] glows with a fizzy, dizzy energy, pregnant with possibility and whispering in your ear: listen closely to a story, any story, and you'll hear another story inside it, eager to meet the world." ( The Village Voice)

"A remarkable book....It knits together science fiction, political thriller, and historical pastiche with musical virtuosity and linguistic exuberance: there won't be a bigger, bolder novel next year." ( The Guardian)

Fastastic writing, great narration

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The moral of the story seems to be, "isn't it horrible how terrible people are to each other. It never changes, but maybe if we all could take a step back and really see the big picture we would get to together and build a better world."

Interesting premise, witty, evocative descriptions

The structure of this novel, six stories told by halves and linked to each other, is expertly carried out.

The first is a pacific travel journal set in the colonial Philippines which starts our journey of understanding what evils we as people perpetrate on each other. The second is a highly amusing account of a disinherited musician. The third is an excerpt from a disco-era murder/corporate espionage mystery. The fourth is an entertaining modern-time adventure of a man mistakenly committed to a nursing home. The fifth is set in a future of corporate hegemony and the questions raised by cloning. The sixth, which is the only story told in one complete piece, speaks of a far, far post-apocalyptic future which seems even more brutal than our warlike past.

The book ascends toward this story by halves and then descends, each occupant of the previous tale having viewed the first half of the story of the last and ending their story with the time and opportunity to finish viewing the rest of story that came before them. The themes of the book include slavery, racism, abuse, definitions of good and evil, timelessness, humanity, dignity, honor, and the connections between people. The characters are, for the most part, savvy and quick witted, inviting us to inhabit a strong narrative voice. I laughed out loud at the pithy dialog several times and was awed by masterful descriptions.

I highly recommend this book for the study of the craft of creative writing.

everything is connected

Fascinatingly interconnected at every turn in this story spanning time. This story holds powerful observations on morality and humanity hidden within its many story lines all of which are also intertwined each playing off the other in subtle yet noticeable ways. A great listen the narrators to a great job. This story will stay with you long after you've finished listening to it.

can't get enough david mitchell. superb narration.

Would you consider the audio edition of Cloud Atlas to be better than the print version?

I believe my enjoyment of the book was enhanced by the excellent narration.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

accents, attitude, distinct character voices.

Gorgeous story, gorgeous performance

Any additional comments?

One of my favorite recent reads/listens. The story is fantastically absorbing, and the performance is truly stellar.

Whirlwind for the Mind!

This book simply left my head spinning! It begins in the 19th century with a group of sailors headed towards Hawaii. The story then proceeds through character after character over a timeline from the 1800s into a future that is so distant and apocalyptical that the people of that time period don't know the year.

I can't recall each and ever single character over the timeline, but the ones that stand out are the reporter in the 1970s doing investigative work into a nuclear power plant, the clone Somni in a dystopian future, and the post-post apocalyptical character of Zachry who lives in Hawaii. The reason I remember Zachy is because he's the character I like the least. His manner of speech (while perhaps realistic) is difficult to listen to. I wonder how it would come across when read.

Once the story hits its furthest point in time with Zachry, it then travels backward again through each character until we are back where we began with the sailor in the 19th century.

A great tale, expertly cast narrators, and story that effortlessly weaves through time.

great

What made the experience of listening to Cloud Atlas the most enjoyable?

Great narration, great story lines. Easy to listen to. Very funny in one chapter. One of the best audible books.

Best Read in Awhile

What did you love best about Cloud Atlas?

It works on two levels. The book consists of six stories. Each internal narrative is interesting in its own right. Each character, individually, is very well drawn and compelling (with one possible exception). So, even as a collection of short stories it's a great read, and the changes in style keeps things fresh throughout. But the best part is that there's a lot to work out about the connections between the stories that's not always spelled out to the reader. Once you tap into the connections between the stories, the cascading set of endings is compelling and satisfying both within the short story - and for what you learn between the stories. So it's fun, but you can think about it, too.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrators are really stars in this one. It's a tough book - there are six stories told in very different "voices," and the narrators do a great job of bringing each character to life, and, in certain instances, giving non-standard speech a personal immediacy that I understand was not there in the text-version of the book for every reader. I immediately began looking for their other material.

I've never enjoyed John Lee as much as I do here.

A good friend who read the text version informs me that the first and sixth stories can be a slog, and I did not have that experience at all.

Wonderfuly well writen and read

The book was a great read. I think the only issue with it for me was the break between the first and second section. It most likely worked well on paper because you can see the cut and switch, I thought for a bit there was a section of audio missing. However, that is only a small unimportant complaint to an otherwise amazing book.

All the narrators do a wonderful job and the fact that you have a different person for each section makes it easy to follow the story.

Brilliant Book; great narration!

I only recently discovered David Mitchell, and i regret it took me so long. I consistently find him to be the best writer i've encountered in a long time. And this is really kind of his magnum opus. Treat yourself and listen to it slowly; enjoy every sentence!