What if everything isn't what it seems?

 

                                                                    Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash

 

What do you get if you mix together an ancient Greek manuscript, characters from 15 Century Constantinople, Present day Idaho and a teenager on a spaceship in the 22nd Century? You get a book that will blow your mind!

I first came across Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr  in the English language section of a wonderful bookshop called Martinus in my wife's home town Trnava in Slovakia. And when a book is dedicated to librarians everywhere, you have to read it, right?

Though it did take me a while. I took it out of my local library when I got back, but then I'd only read a few chapters before I had to return it. Thankfully some good friends of ours had a copy so I was able to borrow it off them. It does take a while to get into, as it covers three different time periods, and very different characters, but boy is the payout worth it, when you realise the connection that all these characters have! 

So you'll probably thinking now, so come on, how does it blow your mind? Well, that's the frustrating thing, I can't tell you until you've read the book as the twist is.... tremendous!

All I can say, is that I feel it's certainly a book for our time. I never thought I'd feel I had something in common with the way two sisters were feeling in Constantinople, or that virtual reality could be more sinister than I believed. 

After reading the book, I read an interview with the author, and I'm not surprised that he loved the Narnia books when he was growing up, as I felt that Cloud Cuckoo Land fits rather well with The Last Battle where things are certainly not what they seem.

If you have read it, I'd love to hear what you thought, and if you haven't, then tell me about other books you've read that have fantastic twists.

Martin is a writer, baker, photographer and storyteller. He's been published in the ACW Christmas anthology, Lent devotional and three Flash fiction anthologies. You can find him on Twitter here.