Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: book review

Cloud Atlas (2004) is a nested novel: six stories by six characters with a slight twist – for each person has the story of the previous person through letters or journals.

The stories span a period of time from 1850 (with Adam Ewing on a ship in the Pacific Ocean sailing to Australia), to the 1930s (in Belgium – the protagonist has the journal of the character on the ship in the Pacific Ocean), to 1975, and so on to Zachry, a Pacific Islander. But the first five stories end abruptly.

The premise is that knowledge transforms over time from generation to generation: ‘Knowledge can be forgotten as easily as, perhaps more easily than, it can be accrued.’ This is particularly heightened due to each character belonging to a different culture when reading the previous person’s journal or letters. Hence, cultural differences are explored with respect to how they perceive information.

Themes of understanding and misunderstanding are intertwined as perceptions influence knowledge. Each character tries to understand the past by attempting to fit the context into the present time.

There is also an interplay in the form of power – individual, corporate, and government power – and how power changes over the course of history. With power comes greed. With the past and the present, the future is always shaped by the people who come before in a never-ending cycle.

Initially this is a difficult novel to read, but with persistence the six novellas finally come together to form the readers’ understanding of the whole novel – from Adam to Zachry (A-Z). While I was reading it, I didn’t enjoy the experience. It was only after I had read it that I could (slightly) appreciate the intentions of the novel. I won’t read it again – until after I have seen the 2012 movie – maybe!

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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