Behind her, inside a translucent cylinder that rises sixteen feet from floor to ceiling, hangs a machine composed of trillions of golden threads, none thicker than a human hair. Each filament twines around thousands of others in entanglements of astonishing intricacy. Occasionally a bundle somewhere along the surface of the machine pulses with light: now here, now there. This is Sybil."
- Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
I was worried that Doerr's latest novel wouldn't live up to the brilliance of his Pulitzer Prize winning All the Light We Cannot See. I needed have, for Cloud Cuckoo Land is everything I want out of a novel: it's entertaining, meaningful, beautiful, moving, and inspirational. A wide range of characters dispersed across time and location all struggle against the conditions of their lives, finding inspiration in a story about the mythical Cloud Cuckoo Land. So not only is it a moving book about life, but about finding life in a book that inspires people to keep going, sometimes in dire situations. I don't want to say more and spoil anything. Go out and read it today: highly recommended.
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