An Astonishingly Good Read

I rarely post on here about books I'm reading / have read / have hurled into the street below because the author just can't effing write. But I really have to share a little rave-ette with you, having just finished reading David Mitchell's extraordinary 2004 novel, Cloud Atlas for the second time. Why it took me 7 years to come across this book, I'll never know. I was talking to a writer-friend a few months ago, and he asked me if I'd read it. I confessed I'd never heard of it, and a week or two later he presented me with a copy at our flatwarming soiree. I wasn't sure if it was a gift or a loan, but after I'd finished it the first time I told him he'd have to fight me if he wanted it back. I won't spoil it for you by telling you anything about it, except that its interlinked episodes hurtle through the past and the future, and the author slips with apparent ease between various genres and styles of writing in a supremely impressive and entertaining way.

It seems a motion picture is going to be made of it, starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and many other big names. But don't wait for the film - read the book!