The things I already lose sleep over. The things I already obsessively read news articles about. The things I already feel powerless over. He hit them all on the nose.

The ‘he’ I speak of here is Anthony Doerr, the author of the novel Cloud Cuckoo Land. Doerr wrote one of my all-time, top-five* favorite novels, All the Light We Cannot See. (I wrote a post about it many moons ago that you can read here.) So, you can imagine my delight upon hearing he wrote another book…finally. At the same time, I hesitated to read it because of the importance of All the Light We Cannot See.

But then, my book club chooses it for December and forces my hand. A week later, my sister-in-law and fellow book club member calls me, “Does this book get happier?” she asks. She tells me she doesn’t think she can finish. This surprises me given the book we read previously was about an elk ghost who murders four men, and she had no problem with that. Because I’m familiar with Doerr’s writing, I tell her to stick it out. He will bring it together. It will be worth it. As one character says, “Sometimes the things we think are lost are only hidden, waiting to be rediscovered.”

A few nights later I am in bed reading and start thinking to myself, I don’t know if I can finish this. It is seriously stressing me out. And that’s when it hits me. He’s encompassed all the world’s worries into this one book. The most prominent being climate change but he also hits on animal cruelty and war, just to name a few. The things I already lose sleep over.

The thing holding it all together is of course, the power of a story. The different five storylines, which also happen to be different timelines, all revolve around a piece of literature named Cloud Cuckoo Land written by Greek philosopher Diogenes. It is this thread that weaves the storylines together and the thread that keeps me connected and hopeful. I keep reading. I stick it out.

I won’t say this book has a happy ending, but I will say there is joy, redemption, and forgiveness. He brings it all together.

*Can I get a heck yes for a High Fidelity reference?