Cloud Atlas

A Novel

By: David Mitchell

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

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)

Easy listening it ain't

This is an extremely clever book filled with nuances and devices that would, I think, be better appreciated in the written form; to state the obvious, it's much easier to flip back in a book than it is to scan back on a listening device. But you (who am I kidding, I mean me; it's all about me) feel pretty darned smart while listening to the second half of the book when you find that not only do you really get it, but that you are also able to make "aha" connections between parts early on in the book that made almost no sense at the time. This isn't a mystery (although one of the stories within the book does take the form of a mystery, of sorts) but I often felt as if I would have been better able to keep up with the story if I had been taking notes; then again, that probably would have interfered with my ability to sleep on the subway while listening to some of this book. On an almost entirely positive note, some of the narration is excellent and the fact that the book is split up into six different stories with different narrators makes it very easy on the ear, if a little taxing on the brain.

I am confused

on 1st story and the reader reads so fast I cannot keep up with what is going on. I will keep listening

5 stars for 5

This novel is comprised of five very distinct stories all incorporating the theme, as Dr. Goose put it, "the weak are meat and the strong eat." The stories are wedding cake tiered upon each other meaning 4 of the stories are split into 2 parts with only the 5th, top tier, being told from beginning to end. Readers beware that the first story ends in the middle of a sentence so that you'll think something is wrong with the recording. None of the other stories do that.

Two of the stories are voiced with English accents, which I found a liitle disconcerting for the first several minutes, but I soon became accustomed. Actually, I was compelled to pay attention to the conversation (mostly first person narrative) due shearly to the fact that David Mitchell is so witty, humorous, and cleaver, I didn't want to miss anything.

I've never heard anything like the top tier story told from a Pacific Islander point of view. The Pidgen English of this narrative was also a little disconcerting at first, but after awhile I found myself marveling at the amazing vocabulary the author put together to pull this off. It must have taken an enormous amount of time and research.

I picked this book due to the good reviews and I'll pass it forward, though not for anyone looking for a light read.

Some good storytelling but not cohesive

I enjoyed a couple of the stories. Did not enjoy a couple of them too. The old guy trapped in a retirement home had me laughing out loud. I kept waiting for the author to tie all the stories together, and I was rather shocked when it ended. Felt kind of lazy to me. Like maybe the author had a few short stories lying about, so he slapped a birthmark on the protagonist and called it reincarnation.

skip the movie, skip the book - do audio!

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

Excellent narration! I watched the movie afterwards and it stunk. The audio book easily ties all the story lines together and the different voices and accents make it difficult to put down.

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

Unique. I've never read (Listened to) anything like it.

Which scene was your favorite?

The guy in the old folks home was hilarious from the start. I replayed parts from this section over and over and kept laughing.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It was an experience. You have to listen to this audio to get the whole deal. Better than ANY movie I've seen in the past year.

Any additional comments?

SKIP THE MOVIE AND THE BOOK........this one was MADE for audio!

Strung out across centuries

This far-reaching set of interconnected stories has a lot of reach, and it takes you many hours of listening before you start to put it together. When you do, it's a fascinating concept carried to a conclusion that gets stretched a bit. The writing is virtuosic; as Mitchell jumps between centuries, so do his dialog and style.

Disjointed

While the individual stories are interesting, the connection between them is tenuous and not inspiring. This is the first in aprox. 20 audio books that I haven't been able to make myself finish.

Interesting and Confusing

The short stories are interesting and some of them even fascinating, especially considering they have a such different styles and settings. What ultimately confused and even irritated me was the way the author tried to connect the stories. The stories really do not have anything in common (other than the author) and the attempt to relate them to each other seemed artificial and confusing (especially in the audio format).

A Symphony of Words With Movement and Depth.

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

This is one of the better listens out there. Many readers voice the various perspectives and bring entire casts of lively characters to each section. Each reader is like a change from one movement in a classical symphony to the next, and I think that may be what the author was looking for.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The Ascended servant from the 4th arc is by far my favorite. Sure, her story is wrapped in classic dystopian sci-fi, but beyond that her story is that of an underdog's, or Woman versus Society. I root for her from the start, even though you know from the situation of her present that she is already lost.

Which scene was your favorite?

I love the scene where the author of "Knuckle Sandwich" throws his harshest critic from a high balcony to his death. That scene is a gem and a keeper.

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

Because of the nature of this story's construction, I found it best to take in sections. I listened to one entire arc at a time, but paused after the completion of each, because this is the kind of book that demands time for rumination. Do not speed through it, or you will miss grand subtleties.

Any additional comments?

Cloud Atlas is a composite masterpiece. Gets 4 stars overall because it is complex, and sometimes it takes pains to thread its core themes to each and every narrative junction, and that is the worse thing I have to say about it.

My favorite book so far

This book contains many stories within, and so there is a different narrator for each one. All of them made this book so much more enjoyable! This book is very entertaining in its story telling and at the same time, goes deep in existential philosophy, not in a boring kind of way though. Very highly recommended for your entertainment and your soul.