Novel Reviews

Citation

Arce Zelda I, Tavener-Smith T & Youngs J (2022) Novel Reviews. Transfers, 12 (3), pp. 86-94. https://doi.org/10.3167/trans.2022.120307

Abstract
David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas presents multiple plots across different eras set in contrasting geographical locations, superseding temporality. With his third novel, Mitchell collapses the boundaries between past, present, and future to progress an interconnectedness between characters across temporal space thereby emphasising the novel’s narrative mobility. It is in this way, that Mitchell facilitates the reader’s mobility of movement across spacio-temporal divides with each narrative’s progression within the novel. And, in doing so, he posits a “different kind of reader for every story” while stimulating “a single reader’s fitful engagement with a text.” Despite being less than a decade old, Cloud Atlas’ popularity extends passed the literary, as critics of Mitchell’s most widely read novel contemplate subjects ranging from genetics and cloning to historiography, intertextuality, and the novel’s narrative structure.

Journal
Transfers: Volume 12, Issue 3