The characters all face internal and external conflict when they learn that the world is more complex than they thought in a coming-of-age plot.Īnna struggles with being more curious and courageous than most other girls during her time in history. Konstance is a child living on the Argos, an intergenerational spaceship that has allegedly left Earth after the planet is destroyed by climate change. Zeno and Seymour meet in 2020 when an attempted act of environmental terrorism by Seymour goes awry. Seymour is a neurodivergent child who befriends a great grey owl he names Trustyfriend. Zeno is a shy child, orphaned after his father is killed in World War II, who goes on to serve in the Korean War. Anna is a young orphan living in Constantinople before the Ottoman siege Omeir is a Bulgarian boy born with a cleft lip who is enlisted into the Ottoman troops.

The book begins by introducing the five main characters and Aethon’s story, as fictitiously discovered by the real-life Greek philosopher Diogenes. These chapters jump from character to character, switching perspectives throughout. The 24 folios of Aethon’s story introduce each chapter. All the plots are connected through the Cloud Cuckoo Land folios, a fictitious Ancient Greek story that follows Aethon as he endeavors to find a utopia known as Cloud Cuckoo Land. The characters are: Anna and Omeir in and around 15th-century Constantinople Zeno and Seymour whose plots converge in 2020 and Konstance, who lives in the future. The plot follows five main characters through three timelines.

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