Cloud Atlas
Six interlocking stories
Cloud Atlas is a 2004 novel by David Mitchell, structured as six nested narratives spanning centuries—from a 19th-century Pacific voyage to a post-apocalyptic future.
Each story interrupts mid-action, resuming in reverse order, connected by recurring themes of oppression, freedom, and souls migrating across time.
The 2012 film adaptation by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer cast actors in multiple roles across timelines.
The title suggests a map of intangible, ever-shifting formations—stories as weather patterns across human history.
- bookBound written work
- reincarnationSoul's rebirth after death
- past livesPrevious cycles of existence
- sextetEnsemble of six
- adaptationFitting to new conditions
Halle Berry · characters · birthmark · shooting star · cycles · interconnectedness · butterfly effect · comet · narrative · novel · David Mitchell · nested · map · ripple effects · causality · intertextuality · ship · existentialism
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