Cloud Atlas

A SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY EDITION CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF CLOUD ATLAS

With an introduction by Gabrielle Zevin (author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow) and a new afterword by David Mitchell

'Nothing short of a miracle'

THE TIMES

'A novel of breathtaking ambition and scale, spanning continents, oceans and centuries'

INDEPENDENT

'A novel in the biggest, most exhilarating sense'

OBSERVER

Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies . . .

A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific Ocean in 1850.

A disinherited composer conning his way into the home of a dying genius in interwar Belgium.

A high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan's California.

A vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors.

The testament of a genetically modified 'dinery server' on death-row.

And Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation.

The narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other's echoes along the corridor of history - echoes that change destinies in ways great and small.

In a globe-encircling narrative reaching from the nineteenth century to a post-apocalyptic future, Cloud Atlas erases the boundaries of time, genre and language to offer an enthralling vision of humanity's will to power, and where it will lead us.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award, winner of Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year and a BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club pick

Mitchell's almost comically ambitious novel is indeed a kind of cumulus: a wild and woolly condensation of ideas, styles and far-flung milieus whose only true commonality is the reincarnated soul at its center. The book's six nesting narratives - from 1850s New Zealand through 1930s Belgium, groovy California, recent-ish England, dystopian Korea and Hawaii - also often feel like a postmodern puzzle-box that whirls and clicks as its great world(s) spin, throwing off sparks of pulp, philosophy and fervid humanism -- 100 best books of the 21st century New York Times
Remarkable . . . it knits together science fiction, political thriller and historical pastiche with musical virtuosity and linguistic exuberance Guardian
An impeccable dance of genres . . . an elegiac, radiant festival of prescience, meditation and entertainment The Times
His wildest ride yet . . . a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill Independent on Sunday
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. S. Byatt Guardian
A magnificent tour de force Time Out
A glorious puzzle for the reader . . . Mitchell's storytelling in Cloud Atlas is of the best Independent
An impeccably structured novel of ideas in many voices -- Literary Editor's Best Books Observer
A novel of breathtaking ambition and scale, spanning continents, oceans and centuries Independent
Funny, exciting, imaginative and energetic Evening Standard
A virtuoso performance . . . deeply impressive Daily Telegraph
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 -- Robert Macfarlane Sunday Times
His most accomplished achievement to date . . . a novel in the biggest, most exhilarating sense Observer
Gloriously inventive and dazzlingly virtuosic Independent on Sunday
A thrilling ride of a story Observer
Tremendous . . . one of the most shamelessly exciting books imaginable Spectator
Stunning . . . One of those rare books that manages to be enormously clever while resisting the temptation to show off Daily Mail
Reassuringly excellent Times Literary Supplement
Engrossing Financial Times
Mitchell 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 page New York Times Book Review
This isn't just one brilliant book, it's a collection of six completely different brilliant books Sunday Independent
Mind-bogglingly good Elle
One 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 -- Dave Eggers
Astonishing . . . essential fiction for the 21st century Independent
Not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I've never read anything quite like it -- Michael Chabon
An 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 Prospect
It takes only a few pages of any part of this masterful feast of a novel to make you want to read the rest Evening Standard
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 visionary Irish Independent
As 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 hope Big Issue

David 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.

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