A new anniversary edition of the timeless bestseller, celebrating 20 years of a groundbreaking achievement in storytelling with an introduction by Gabrielle Zevin and a new afterword from David Mitchell.Remarkable . . . it knits together science fiction, political thriller and historical pastiche with
musical virtuosity and linguistic exuberanceAn impeccable dance of genres . . . an
elegiac, radiant festival of prescience, meditation and entertainment
His wildest ride yet . . .
a singular achievement, from an author of
extraordinary ambition and skill
David Mitchell entices his readers onto a
rollercoaster, and at first they wonder if they want to get off. Then - at least in my case - they can't bear the journey to end
A magnificent tour de forceA
glorious puzzle for the reader . . . Mitchell's storytelling in
Cloud Atlas is of the best
An impeccably structured novel of ideas in many voices
A novel of
breathtaking ambition and scale, spanning continents, oceans and centuries
Funny, exciting, imaginative and energeticA virtuoso performance . . . deeply impressive
The way Mitchell inhabits the different voices of the novel is close to
miraculous . . . No other British novelist, to my mind, combines such a
darkly futuristic intelligence with such polyphonic ease
His most accomplished achievement to date . . . a novel in the biggest, most
exhilarating sense
Gloriously inventive and dazzlingly virtuosicA
thrilling ride of a story
Tremendous . . . one of the most
shamelessly exciting books imaginable
Stunning . . . One of those rare books that manages to be enormously clever while resisting the temptation to show off
Reassuringly
excellentEngrossingMitchell 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 pageThis isn't just one
brilliant book, it's a collection of six completely different brilliant books
Mind-bogglingly goodOne 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
Astonishing . . .
essential fiction for the 21st century
Not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too.
I've never read anything quite like itAn intense, arcing colossus of a book whose narrative links, supplied by the voices of six main characters, are spun out into a unified theory of everything: history, human evolution, science, the will to power. The voices span epochs, continents, and genres . . . Mitchell has rightly commanded attention for the
sheer breadth and energy of his composition . . . I am moved by (his) talent
It takes only a few pages of any part of this
masterful feast of a novel to make you want to read the rest
David Mitchell may well be possessed of genius . . . As well-plotted, entertaining narrative, Cloud Atlas succeeds on many levels. As political and cultural fable, with an unerring humanist sense of the dangerous will to power that lies at the dark heart of man, it's
visionaryAs
mind-bending in its ideas as it is accessible on the page . . . It pretty much resists hyperbole simply by being
better than you'd ever dare hopeDavid Mitchell is the author of the novels Ghostwritten, number9dream, Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The Bone Clocks, Slade House and Utopia Avenue. He has been shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize, won the World Fantasy Award, and the John Llewellyn Rhys, Geoffrey Faber Memorial and South Bank Show Literature Prizes, among others. In 2018, he won the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence, given in recognition of a writer's entire body of work. His screenwriting credits include the TV shows Pachinko and Sense8, and the movie Matrix: Resurrections.
In addition, David Mitchell together with KA Yoshida has translated from Japanese two autism memoirs by Naoki Higashida: The Reason I Jump and Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight.
He lives in Ireland.