Cloud Atlas: A Novel: Amazon.de: David Mitchell: Englische Bücher

Amazon.co.uk

It's hard not to become ensnared by words beginning with the letter B, when attempting to describe Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell's third novel. It's a big book, for start, bold in scope and execution--a bravura literary performance, possibly. (Let's steer clear of breathtaking for now.) Then, of course, Mitchell was among Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and his second novel number9dreamwas shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Characters with birthmarks in the shape of comets are a motif; as are boats. Oh and one of the six narratives strands of the book--where coincidentally Robert Frobisher, a young composer, dreams up "a sextet for overlapping soloists" entitled Cloud Atlas--is set in Belgium, not far from Bruges. (See what I mean?)

Structured rather akin to a Chinese puzzle or a set of Matrioshka dolls, there are dazzling shifts in genre and voice and the stories leak into each other with incidents and people being passed on like batons in a relay race. The 19th-century journals of an American notary in the Pacific that open the novel are subsequently unearthed 80 years later on by Frobisher in the library of the ageing, syphilitic maestro he's trying to fleece. Frobisher's waspish letters to his old Cambridge crony, Rufus Sexsmith, in turn surface when Rufus, (by the 1970s a leading nuclear scientist) is murdered. A novelistic account of the journalist Luisa Rey's investigation into Rufus' death finds its way to Timothy Cavendish, a London vanity publisher with an author who has an ingenious method of silencing a snide reviewer. And in a near-dystopian Blade Runner-esque future, a genetically engineered fast food waitress sees a movie based on Cavendish's unfortunate internment in a Hull retirement home. (Cavendish himself wonders how a director called Lars might wish to tackle his plight). All this is less tricky than it sounds, only the lone "Zachary" chapter, told in Pacific Islander dialect (all "dingos'n'ravens", "brekker" and "f'llowin'"s) is an exercise in style too far. Not all the threads quite connect but nonetheless Mitchell binds them into a quite spellbinding rumination on human nature, power, oppression, race, colonialism and consumerism. --Travis Elborough -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

Pressestimmen

“Cloud Atlas is, obviously, a formidable creation. . . . Fellow novelists will find it hard not to heap . . . praise on David Mitchell, whose brilliance takes one’s breath away in a manner not unlike a first experience of Chartres or the Duomo.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Cloud Atlas is a head rush, both action-packed and chillingly ruminative.”
—People

“Mitchell’s range is astonishing, moving effortlessly from elegant genre fiction to satire to high-end literary pyrotechnics….to Mitchell — prodigiously skilled and gloriously ambitious — I can only say, bravo!”
—Toronto Star

“Cloud Atlas imposes a dizzying series of milieus, characters and conflicts upon us . . . [and] feels like a doggedly expert gloss on various writers and modes.”
—The New York Times

“Audacious, dazzling…. Readers who enjoy the 'novel as puzzle' will find much to savor in this original and occasionally very entertaining work.”
—Publishers Weekly

“The novel as series of nested dolls or Chinese boxes, a puzzle-book, and yet — not just dazzling, amusing or clever but heartbreaking and passionate, too. I’ve never read anything quite like it, and I’m grateful to have lived, for a while, in all its many worlds, which are all one world, which is, in turn, enchanted by Mitchell’s spell-caster prose, our own.”
—Michael Chabon

Advance UK reviews for Cloud Atlas:
"the third novel from the genre-busting David Mitchell, author of Ghostwritten and the Booker-shortlisted Number9Dream is a remarkable book, made up of six resonating strands; the narrative reaches back into the 19th century, to colonialism and savagery in the Pacific islands, and forwards into a dark future, beyond the collapse of civilisation. It knits together science fiction, political thriller and historical pastiche with musical virtuosity and linguistic exuberance: there won't be a bigger, bolder novel next year."
—Justine Jordan, Guardian, Preview of 2004

"David Mitchell is by no means a complete unknown, but I shall be very surprised if his next book, the sprawling and ambitious Cloud Atlas doesn't propel him into the front rank of novelists. I only wish it had been there for this year's Man Booker judges to consider."
—D J Taylor, Independent, Preview of 2004

"A daunting talent, adept with the global canvas, and able to move from the technological to the spiritual with supernatural ease."
—Suzi Feay, Independent on Sunday, Preview of 2004

"Watch out for Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, a work of free-wheeling fantasy by a cutting-edge writer."
—David Robson, Sunday Telegraph, Preview of 2004

Praise for David Mitchell:
“Mitchell possesses an amazingly copious and eclectic imagination.”
—William Boyd

“[Ghostwritten is] one of the best first novels I’ve read for a long time. . . . I couldn’t put it down. . . . And it’s even better the second time.”
—A. S. Byatt

“Mitchell has a gift for fiction’s natural pleasures -- intricate surprises, insidiously woven narratives, ingenious voices.”
—The New York Times Book Review

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Einfach unfassbar!! 21. Februar 2007

Von Judith

Format:Taschenbuch

Das ist wirklich das unglaublichste Buch, das ich jemals gelesen hat. Mitchell verbindet nicht nur mehrere Erzählstränge auf virtuose Weise, er bedient sich dabei auch noch verschiedenster Genres (Tagebuch, Interview, Brief...) von unterschiedlichen Sprachen passend zur Zeit, in der die jeweilige Erzählung angesiedelt ist, ganz zu schweigen. So etwas hat man wirklich noch nicht gelesen!!! Dieses Buch ist ein absolutes Muss, läßt es den Leser doch völlig verblüfft zurück! Von den ersten schwierig geschriebenen Seiten sollte man sich nicht abschrecken lassen, man wird umso mehr entlohnt von den darauf folgenden abenteuerlich schriftstellerischen Kapriolen! Definetely a MUST-READ!

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4 von 4 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Mein neues Lieblingsbuch! 13. Dezember 2010

Von M. Bayer (Bonn)

Dieses Buch ist einfach spektakulär. Mehrere Geschichten, über Jahrhunderte verstreut und doch genial miteinander verwoben; voller Witz, Gefühl, Dramatik und Spannung. Besonders die Geschichte des jungen Komponisten Robert Frobisher hat mich zu Tränen gerührt; sie ist unglaublich komisch und tragisch zugleich. Verschiedenste Erzählstile und Charaktere fügen sich nach und nach zu einem genialen Ganzen. Fast schon ein philosophisches Werk, wie ich finde.

Nicht alle Teile sind immer einfach zu lesen (zumindest für den Englisch-Nichtmuttersprachler), dies gilt insb. für das jeweils erste, letzte und mittlere Kapitel von "Cloud Atlas". Davon sollte man sich jedoch keinesfalls irritieren lassen, mit ein bisschen Konzentration geht es.

Ich glaube, dass am Ende jeder seine persönliche "Message" aus diesem Buch mitnehmen kann, und mit dem einen oder anderen Charakter kann man sich sehr gut identifizieren. Mit Sicherheit sollte "Cloud Atlas" keinen halbwegs tiefgründig veranlagten Leser unberührt lassen. Dieses Buch würde ich meinen besten Freunden schenken - eine unbedingte Kaufempfehlung!!

2 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Incredible read! 28. Februar 2011

Von Mary-K

This book is a master piece of literature, novel and with ovewhelming originality Mitchell takes the reader through the centuries,writing styles,languages and genres- I never read anything like that before-it is not just the book within a book story.
As this one is beyond a certain genre,it's just must read, for one can like it or not but it's exceptionally DIFFERENT.
Full 5 start for the best read I have had for ages!