Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

A while ago, I finished reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and I've been hoping that with some time I would gain perspective so that I could more clearly share my thoughts on this "novel".  However, despite ruminating on it for several weeks now, I am no closer to consolidating my thoughts so I'll have to just make do.

First, I'd like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book -- which I hesitate to call a novel.  In fact, to me it felt more like a group of short stories linked together by a thread, or more like a set of nesting dolls first taken apart and then reassembled.  It is a group of 6 stories told in 6 different voices -- each presented in an open ended manner in the first half of the book and then completed (cascading back through time) in the second half of the book. 

In the beginning it took me some time to become fully engaged in the book, but by the halfway point I was completely hooked. While the structure in unconventional I feel that it only adds to the overall enjoyment of the book.  If you are looking for something very different, yet familiar, give this book a try.