Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, Summary

This book is a composite of six nested stories, connecting the mid-nineteenth century with the distant future of the Pacific islands. The first five stories break off at their climaxes, giving way to the next era, while the central sixth story unfolds in its entirety, after which the preceding plots conclude in reverse order. Objects connect the eras. British author David Mitchell conceived the general concept while living in Hiroshima, directly inspired by Italo Calvino’s book. He extensively researched the history of the indigenous Moriori people of the Chatham Islands, and published the finished novel in 2004.

The novel was shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize and won the British Book Award for Fiction. Hollywood responded later. In 2012, directors Lana and Lilly Wachowski, along with Tom Tykwer, released a major film based on the book. The text remains unrelated to the series.

Break in stories

In 1849, American notary Adam Ewing finds himself stranded on the Pacific islands of Chatham Island, waiting for his damaged ship to be repaired. The coastline is thickly strewn with the teeth of cannibalized natives, which the English doctor Henry Goose eagerly digs up with a rusty spoon to secretly sell to London denture makers. Horror grips the observer. On a high hilltop, a careless Californian falls into a deep volcanic crater, where the sinister wooden faces of ancient pagan idols are carved into tree trunks. A bloodied slave, Autua, sends a pale stranger a secret sign of friendly sympathy during a brutal village execution. What he sees stuns the traveler.

On board the schooner, a runaway slave secretly sneaks into the notary’s cabin and secures a seaman’s share by performing impeccable service on the storm shrouds. The stern captain softens. Soon, his wily companion, Goose, instills in the notary a mortal fear of an imaginary brain parasite and methodically feeds the gullible Californian poisonous arsenic powders in order to quickly seize all his valuable papers. The ship’s diary ends.

In 1931, runaway Cambridge student Robert Frobisher is hired as secretary to the blind Belgian classical composer Vivian Ayres at Château Zedelghem. The young man transcribes other people’s scores. In a dusty alcove, the lodger accidentally discovers Ewing’s tattered diary, planted by an unknown previous guest under the rickety wooden leg of a creaking bedstead. The daring musician begins an affair with the house’s owner, Jocasta. The resounding triumph of a symphonic poem he composed for the maestro in Krakow finally inspires the young composer. The offended old man cynically appropriates someone else’s piano theme, brazenly threatens the fugitive with public disgrace, and demands complete artistic submission, forcing the young man to hastily prepare a secret, nocturnal escape. His letters to his friend end abruptly.

In 1975, Californian journalist Luisa Rey accidentally becomes trapped in a broken office elevator with aging British physicist Rufus Sixsmith. The scientist alerts the reporter. A few days later, the ruthless hitman Bill Smock cold-bloodedly guns down Sixsmith in an airport hotel room to securely cover up dangerous design flaws in a new commercial nuclear reactor on the offshore island of Swannekke. Among the dead man’s belongings, the reporter finds Frobisher’s old letters. A frightened engineer, Sachs, hands the brave journalist a secret copy of the damning report through the unlocked trunk of a battered orange car. A heavy ram tosses the car over.

In London in the early 2000s, an elderly, vain publisher, Timothy Cavendish, suddenly makes a colossal profit on a scandalous autobiography of a criminal. A client has murdered the critic. Extortionists demand fifty thousand pounds in cash, forcing the terrified publisher to seek safe haven. In a rush, the fugitive throws a voluminous manuscript of a detective novel about Californian journalist Luisa Rey, accidentally sent by an aspiring author overseas, into his travel bag. A wily relative, Denholm, slips his cornered brother papers for a voluntary life sentence in a gloomy, gated retirement home under the hypocritical guise of a quiet, respectable country inn for a relaxing holiday. For attempting to rebel, orderly Withers flogs the old man with a bamboo cane. A stroke paralyzes the fugitive.

In the totalitarian Asian state of Nea-So-Kopros, genetically engineered waitress Sonmi-451 works her way through a life of slave labor in an underground fast-food restaurant. The slaves drink soap. The death of her rebellious friend, Yuna, triggers her chemical maturation, after which she is taken to university to present fake dissertations. Graduate student Hae-Joo Im introduces the reclusive woman to a banned pre-revolutionary film about Cavendish’s escape. A sudden nighttime assault by government punitive forces her companion to openly reveal her affiliation with the rebellious underground Union and embark on a dangerous escape. The interrogation tape is cut off.

Five broken stories suddenly freeze over the yawning abyss of the unknown.

A Shattered World in Hawaii

In a distant post-apocalyptic future on Hawaii’s Big Island, a tribe of valley goatherds, surviving after the collapse of an ancient civilization, is gradually becoming feral. They revere Sonmi as a goddess. Young Zachry cherishes the memory of his father’s death at the hands of ferocious Kona cannibals and the arrival of the highly advanced dark-skinned researcher Meronym from the dying technological tribe of Seers. The alien settles in the family cabin to closely study island life. A dangerous sting from a poisonous scorpionfish suddenly brings his younger sister, Katkin, to the brink of an agonizing, inevitable death in the bay. Meronym secretly heals the child.

Together, the travelers climb through an ice storm to the summit of the sacred volcano Mauna Kea, to the abandoned astronomical stations of an ancient civilization. The voice of a disembodied devil tempts their guide. An ancient prophetic dream in an icon cave keeps a shepherd from committing bloody betrayal on an icy stone wall. Below, carnage erupts. Kona raiders slaughter a peaceful village, turning the captured women and children into powerless slaves. Zachry kills a sleepy guard and escapes with Meronym on a Seer kayak, which carries the fugitives to the neighboring island of Maui. The memory of the lost tribe now remains forever in the hands of the last witness. The Silver Egg sings.

Completing broken lines

On the ship "Golden Ark," Sonmi peers into the hold and sees the industrial butchering of decommissioned Fabricants for nutritious protein. Horror leads to action. The fugitive draws up the famous "Declarations" demanding the universal liberation of clones, knowing her imminent arrest is inevitable. Before her execution at the House of Light, the prisoner calmly reveals to the shocked investigator the true provocative plan of the corpocracy, unable to destroy the sown seeds of rebellion. Death is not feared.

Having recovered from a severe blow, Cavendish teams up with the elderly rebels Ernie and Veronica to escape the hated institution. The old men steal a jeep. In a Scottish tavern, enraged patrons brutally beat the guards who caught the escapees, allowing the publisher to safely reach Dundee and profitably sell the film rights to the gangster memoirs. Meanwhile, Cavendish rapturously finishes reading the manuscript about Luisa Rey.

Having escaped from a sunken car, Luisa Rey enlists the unexpected help of former security chief Joe Napier, who is repaying a long-standing debt to her deceased father. Bullets catch up with the enemies. On Sixsmith’s yacht, the mortally wounded Napier kills the assassin Smoke with a well-aimed shot, saving the brave journalist’s life and helping her deliver an incriminating dossier to the national press. The crime syndicate is destroyed. Soon, Sixsmith’s niece forwards the surviving letters of composer Frobisher to the victor.

In a Bruges hotel, Robert Frobisher, driven by brutal blackmail, completes his grandiose sextet "Cloud Atlas" in a creative ecstasy. Creativity drains the last of his energy. On the eve of his death, the young man shoots himself in the mouth with a stolen revolver. The unique score is saved. The physicist receives the second half of the discovered Pacific Ocean diary by mail.

In Hawaii, Adam Ewing, slowly dying from arsenic, is saved at the last moment by the devoted sailor Autua, who exposes the treachery of Dr. Goose. The native flushes out the poison. A Catholic hospital restores the notary’s health, opening his eyes to the ugliness of colonial racism and inspiring him to dedicate the rest of his days to the fight for the liberation of American slaves. The ocean is made of drops.