Description

A SPECIAL SIGNED 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
With unmissable sprayed edges and endpapers, beautiful turquoise foil, a bespoke case design, ribbon marker, peelable sticker and signed by the author, this stunning 20th anniversary hardback of Cloud Atlas is the perfect gift for fans

‘Nothing short of a miracle’
THE TIMES

‘A novel of breathtaking ambition and scale, spanning continents, oceans and centuries’
INDEPENDENT

‘A virtuoso performance’
DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘One of the most shamelessly exciting books imaginable’
SPECTATOR

‘Not just dazzling, amusing, or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I’ve never read anything quite like it’
MICHAEL CHABON

‘One of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? modern classics that no doubt it – and should be – read by any student of contemporary literature’
DAVE EGGERS

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.

*Please note that p. 40 is intentionally blank*

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

PRAISE FOR DAVID MITCHELL
‘A thrilling and gifted writer’
FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good’
DAILY MAIL

‘Mitchell is, clearly, a genius’
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

‘An author of extraordinary ambition and skill’
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

‘A superb storyteller’
THE NEW YORKER

Publisher Review

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 *