Cloud Atlas

by David Mitchell

Six characters, who live in different time periods, may or may not be reincarnated versions of one another. Their circumstances and forms change, but they play out the same conflicts. Sometimes they do a little better; sometimes a little worse. The book’s themes include, but are not limited to, corporate greed, abuse of power, climate change, colonialism, plastic surgery, AI, literary success and failure, revolution, propaganda, credit and collaboration, appropriation, racism, adaptation, technology, ageism, and gender.

David Mitchell has said the novel is about “predacity and predation” and “individuals preying on groups,”