Book excerpt: AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A STUNNINGLY DESIGNED DELUXE HARDCOVER EDITION • Celebrate the 20th anniversary of this timeless, structure-bending classic—from a postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in twenty-first-century fiction • With an introduction by Gabrielle Zevin (author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow) Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. The novel careens, with dazzling virtuosity, to Belgium, 1931, to the West Coast in the 1970s, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate in the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. But the story doesn’t end even there. The novel boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon. With a stunning, unmissable new design, this Knopf Canada exclusive 20th anniversary hardcover edition is the perfect gift for fans.