I thought everyone might enjoy this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27mitchell-t.html
I especially enjoyed the idea behind his third novel...
-K.M.
Kevin, thanks for supplying that link. Big fan of David Mitchell and am looking forward to reading his newest.
“Cloud Atlas,” that third novel of Mitchell’s you refer to, is an amazing work, a tour de force of style and storytelling, and easily one of my five favorites of this century so far.
The novel is six stories, which are told in 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1 sequence (you get the first part of stories 1-5, the entirety of 6, and then the second part of the other stories). The stories move through time, from 19th century in the first section all the way to a distant, post-apocalypse, return to primitive times future, and there are echoes of the prior story in each story. Mitchell also re-uses characters from his first novel “Ghostwritten” (another excellent book).
Good to know. I think I'm going to try and find a copy if I can somewhere (not thinking my library will have it, but its worth a shot.)