Cloud Atlas By David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas is a glittering compendium of interlacing parables.

Each story is a completed tale within itself, yet their true significances lies in the connections between them, forming a collective whole. The stories are vastly different in style, plot, and perspective, encompassing the lives of a nineteenth century notary, a post WWI musician playboy, a strong willed journalist in 1970s California, an aging literary editor in the early 21st century, a clone who sets out to instigate a rebellion, and a primitive youth surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. No two stories are set in the same location, ranging from the English countryside to a futuristic Korea. Each story segways into the next through character connections via letters, books, films, etc. The main characters do not directly interact with one another but their lives are infinitely connected and affected by the actions of the others. There is also an underlining spiritual thread which binds the main characters to one another, be it through past life experiences or the novel’s greater proposal, that all beings on Earth, past and present, are eternally linked through the human condition.

Each of the six stories of Cloud Atlas are broken into two parts with the exception of Sloosha’s Crossin’: An’ Ev’rythi’ After, which is completed in one central section. The first half of each section introduces the main themes, style, and plot. The second half concludes each tale. The stories are interrupted or halted in their first sections and are followed by the next story in chronological sequence. For example The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, which takes place in the 1800s is followed by the Letters from Zedelghem set in post World War I Belgium. The main characters are also linked in spirit through the reoccurring image of a comet shaped birthmark, serving as a visual representation of the reincarnation of most of the main characters.