Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is a 2004 dystopian novel by British author David Mitchell. The sprawling narrative is composed of a series of nested stories, spanning centuries into the past and the future. In addition to winning numerous literary and science fiction awards, the novel was adapted into a 2012 film of the same name. This guide uses the 2014 Sceptre edition of Cloud Atlas.

Content Warning: The novel and this guide depict slavery and discuss racism, death by suicide, and sexual abuse.

Plot Summary

Cloud Atlas is composed of six connected stories, assembled in a nested structure, in which the protagonists of the respective stories react to the events of the previous chapter. After the midpoint, the stories unwind in reverse chronological order until the final chapter finishes the first story. The chapters reflect this structure in that all the chapter names repeat in reverse order except for the chapter at the novel’s midpoint. The author uses various literary styles that reflect the time period of each nested story.

In the opening story, “The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing,” an American lawyer named Adam Ewing travels aboard a ship to the Chatham Islands. There, he sees an enslaved Morori man named Autua being whipped.