Cloud Cuckoo Land is by far the most impressive book I’ve read this year. Anthony Doerr (author of All the Light You Cannot See) has surpassed his previous gem with an epic tale of five characters spanning The Middle Ages, present time, and futuristic spaceship living.

An ancient text from Diogenes umbrellas two of subplots and shows how the love of literature can save us not only from present day troubles, but also teach us of history we don’t want to repeat and pertinent lessons to avoid future disasters.

Omeir is a cleft palate child who drives oxen for a power hungry sultan, and on the land the sultan wishes to capture is Anna, an impoverished seamstress desperate to heal her sister’s ailments as well as evolve by learning to read in a pre-printing press world. Zeno is a wayward youth enraptured to serve his country as his father did who becomes mentor to children putting on a Diogenes play in the same library where Seymour, an asperger outcast, feels desperate to make a statement about nature destruction and climate change.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a heady book of great length, but worth denying one’s self instant gratification to grasp the importance of our interconnectedness.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is available at BookStoreOne Sarasota 12 S. Palm Ave. Sarasota or via their online store www.sarasotabooks.com. ISBN: 9781982168438.