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)

fantastic read/listen

I didn't love the theatrical adaptation, but this book is absolutely wonderful and the voice performances are quite well done.

I think I’m missing something

Some of the stories were good, others felt like a chore to get through. I don’t know, maybe I missed something but I thought there’d be more connections betwixt the threads of the stories. Production was top notch though, I did like they used different people for each separate story.

Intriguing...

This was a very enjoyable and well-written book. Personally I would recommend reading the book before seeing the movie, although the movie was a very faithful and interesting interpretation. I just wish that I had read the book first so that I had more understanding of the depth of the fictional universe.

Following the souls through time is a fascinating idea and I think it's very well-executed.

What Binds Us Together When We're Worlds Apart?

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

Yes, all the voice actors do wonderfully with their parts and the structure of the book almost begs it to be read aloud.

What other book might you compare Cloud Atlas to and why?

I guess I'd compare it to a collection of short stories or an anthology. I haven't read too many books with this structure that claim to be a "novel."

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

Definitely the accents and/or dialects that are unique to each section. This is a book that plays with language in many ways and you simply would not get this if you read the book alone.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, I needed to take time in between. Each section I could listen to in one sitting though.

Mind = blown

One of the most amazing books I've ever read. I have been listening with audible, but following along on my Nook. Not because the story is unintelligible but because I don't want to miss a single nuance. I love these characters, some of them because they are so loveable, some of the precisely because they are not. The author's use of language is masterful, the story well crafted.

I read the book after seeing the movie. I love them both, for entirely different reasons. The movie is a visual treat and tells the stories very well. But the movie lacks the grace and nuance of the book. Yes, grace. This book is not graceful, but does have its own grace and beauty.

Brilliant!

Where does Cloud Atlas rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is probably one of the most interesting, exciting, informative books I've listened to in a very long time. I am on my 3rd listen to and am still finding connections among the story lines. One listening gives you a complex snap shot, the more you review the text the deeper and more tapestry-like the Polaroid becomes. Amazing.

What other book might you compare Cloud Atlas to and why?

Cloud Atlas is in a class all its own. I've not read or listened to anything like it before. I would, however, juxtapose the basic story line in Cloud Atlas against Atlas Shrugged. While "corpocracy" is adored in Atlas Shrugged, it's merits are much less praised in Cloud Atlas. Cloud Atlas is deeper on so many levels it really is hard to make direct comparison to any modern fiction.

Which scene was your favorite?

Somni 451's debriefing to the Archivist is not only the pivotal point of the book, it may also represent a stitch in the fabric of the tapestry that pulls the whole story together. The later chapters in this book wonderfully close doors the reader may have thought were left open, or open doors thee reader thought closed.

Who was the most memorable character of Cloud Atlas and why?

To pinpoint a specific character as a favorite in this book is a little difficult. You will know what I mean after you read it. Two of my favorites are Somni 451, and Zachary. For each a tremendous amount of personal growth and character development takes place and both are great story tellers. But all of the characters have their place and purpose within the twisting fabric of this mind tickling book.

Any additional comments?

Cloud Atlas is a multi-leveled cautionary science fiction tale. This work is wonderfully put together, expertly performed, and amazingly written. If you read it once you will read it again.... and again, .... etc. (x5). I have recommended Cloud Atlas to anyone who will listen. I've not been so in awe of a fiction since I read Huxley's Brave New World as a teenager (with would have been in the Louisa Rey period of this book).

This is why you should listen to audiobooks

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

Yes, definitely. The range of expression and the choice of voice actors for the various stories really brought the characters to life. The singsong phrasing of Zachry's story was particularly fun to listen to.

Who was your favorite character and why?

It's tough, but I think I liked Timothy Cavendish the best. His sense of humor and self importance worked well to give his story a welcome break from the seriousness of the stories on either side.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Each narrator was really well suited to the character for their respective stories. They brought a depth to the book that I might not have found just reading the text.

Any additional comments?

If anybody asks me why I listen to audiobooks rather than read the text versions, all I have to do is direct them to this one. This is a great combination of a wonderful book and absolutely first-class narration that makes the whole more than the sum of the parts. This is easily one of the best audiobooks out there, and I can't recommend it enough.

Fantastic

This book was basically perfection; I loved it. It was a daring undertaking, successfully executed. Each character felt unique and real, and their connections to eachother were subtle. I'm about to go on a road trip and am tempted to just start it over again. My only critique is for the Sonmi-451 chapters. Sometime there wasn't enough character differentiation for me on the performer's part, so I'd get confused about who was talking. It wasn't a big deal, though; those were probably my favorite chapters.

The best book I’ve read in the last decade

This is a difficult book at first, but well worth the effort. A remarkable achievement.

maginficent magnm opus

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

with the diverse performers, the narrators come to life in this audible book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Cloud Atlas?

the train ride from London by Cavendish

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

no

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. it is so vast. I have a long commute. An hour or more per listening is appropriate.

Any additional comments?

this is a remarkable work by Mitchell, in scoep and sweep. Far exceeds Bone Clocks and exceeded my expectations for a long journey from the past to the future and back!