Cloud Cuckoo Land

Synopsis: Thirteen year old Anna, an orphan, lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople in the 15th century. She lives in a house of women who make a living embroidering the robes of priests. Insatiably curious, Anna learns to read, and in this ancient city famed for its libraries, she finds a book. It is an ancient Greek text, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so the he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Five hundred years later, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno Ninis (who learned Greek as a prisoner of war) rehearses five children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story. Later, in a not-so-distant future, Konstance lives on the interstellar ship Argos, traveling to a new planet Beta-Oph2. She has never set foot on planet Earth. She is assembling scraps of paper with the story of Aethon, as told to her by her father.

Review: Friends, are you ready for a little challenge? Because this book was a puzzle to figure out. There are five central characters, spanning centuries, but whose lives are linked by their relationship to a book. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a fictional text attributed in the novel to an actual Ancient Greek author, Antonius Diogenes. It is a tale that captures the imaginations of our different protagonists. Anthony Doerr’s novel is really a book about books, and a story about stories. It is a tribute to how books can elevate us, and separate us from time, place, and circumstance. This novel is a bit confusing, and a little hard to follow as the storyline is nonlinear and the chapters are alternating POV between the five characters. But it has a lot to say about the balm of storytelling and the power of literature, and the way a great story helps to bring us together. Anthony Doerr does an amazing job of pulling all these disparate threads together and ultimately having it make sense.

Rating: 4/5

Recipe: There was a lot to choose from here, but something Greek seemed appropriate. Holiday season calls for a good dip, so Tzatziki fits the bill.

Ingredients:

1. pint plain whole milk yogurt

1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled and seeded

1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh dill

1) grate the cucumber and toss with 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. place in a sieve and let it drain.

2) squeeze as much liquid as possible from the cucumbers, and combine with the rest of the ingredients.

3) Let chill in the fridge for a few hours to let flavors get acquainted.