Published by 4th Estate, 2021, 577 pages.

“Maybe in the old days men did walk the earth as beasts, and a city of birds floated in the heavens between the realms of men and gods. Or maybe, like all lunatics, the shepherd made his own truth, and so for him, true it was.”

“‘I know why those the librarians read those old stories to you,’ Rex says. ‘Because if it’s told well enough, for as long as the story lasts, you get to slip the trap.’”

An ancient Greek manuscript, falling apart, in places barely legible, is found in Constantinople in 1453. The manuscript travels, is copied, translated and eventually digitized.

This manuscript is Cloud Cuckoo Land by Antonius Diogenes. It tells the story of Aethon, a shepherd who wanted to become a bird so that he could go to the place “far from the troubles of men and accessible only to those with wings, where no one ever suffered and everyone was wise”. But the magic he uses turns him into a donkey.

This is the manuscript, in its various forms, that links five people across space and time: Anna and Omeir in Constantinople in 1453; Zeno and Seymour in Lakeport, Idaho, in 2020; and Konstance in the distant future, who has gone to space with her parents and other humans after the earth has become unliveable.

Anna lives with her sister Maria, a seamstress, in Constantinople. When Maria gets sick, Anna tries to find the money to help cure her sister. She steals valuables from a deserted fort to sell to Italian men living in Constantinople. The fort also has a forgotten library, and Anna brings back bags of damaged books and papers. But when the Italians return home after Constantinople is threatened by an attack from the Saracens, Anna—who has secretly learned to read—is left with the manuscript of Cloud Cuckoo Land.

Omeir lives with his grandfather, mother and sister in a house high on a hill. People see him as an ill omen because of his harelip, which is why the family live so far away from the others. One day, the Saracen army passes through and hires Omeir because of his oxen, a pair that he has raised and that will not obey anyone else. The army needs the oxen to pull the wagons carrying a new war machine that is supposed to guarantee them a victory in Constantinople.

In 2020, Zeno is an elderly man, who lives in Lakeport, Idaho. He was in the Korean war, where he fell in love with Lance Corporal Rex Browning, an English grammar school teacher, who taught him Greek. Zeno now spends his time in the library in Lakeport translating Cloud Cuckoo Land into English.

Seymour is a young man who, as a child, felt at home only in the forest near his house in Lakeport. Seymour was a solitary boy, who cared deeply about a grey owl living in the forest, whom he named Trustyfriend. But when the forest is destroyed to make way for homes, it pushes Seymour over the edge.

And finally, there is Konstance, who has spent her entire life on a spaceship and will probably die there because the planet they are heading for is a long way off. The ship’s computer Sybil is programmed with all human knowledge (though not everything, as Konstance finds out). When Konstance turns 10, she is allowed into the virtual library, where she finds Cloud Cuckoo Land.

The book moves between the lives of these five people. Anna and Omeir are on different sides of the war in Constantinople. After they lose those that were dear to them, they leave—Anna flees the city, and Omeir walks away from the Saracen army. It is only a matter of time before their paths cross.

Seymour is on a collision course with Zeno as he attempts to plant a bomb in what he believes is a deserted library, unaware that Zeno is upstairs with a group of children who are rehearsing for a performance of Cloud Cuckoo Land.

All of them are, in a way, outsiders: Anna is an intelligent girl who has to hide the fact that she can read; Omeir is stigmatized by his harelip; Zeno is a closeted gay man; Seymour is unable to connect with humans; and Konstance questions the myths told to those aboard the spaceship and is finally able to understand its true purpose. All of them are linked by this ancient text.

Fragments of the text of Cloud Cuckoo Land are quoted throughout the book, and the adventures of Aethon punctuate the novel, with each fragment echoing what the protagonists are going through.

The intricacy of this plot makes it a feat to pull off. Although you move between places and time, the ancient text is the common thread running through the book. And as the story nears the end, you start to see the connections between these five people.

The novel deals with key issues: climate change, destruction of habitat, eco-terrorism, war. But above all, this is a love letter to books, to reading, to libraries, and to the power of stories to reach out across time.