Title: Cloud Atlas

Author: David Mitchell

Rating: 5/5

Are there LGBT characters? Yes. One of the stories is about Robert Frobisher, a composer who writes letters to his erstwhile lover, Sixsmith. Frobisher is bisexual; he also sleeps with women.

Brief summary / book review: It’s one hell of a read. The book centers on six stories, told separately, set in different times (ranging from the 1800’s through an indeterminate period in the future), and all are connected in some way, heavily implying reincarnation. Each story is threaded through with action and consequence, and those consequences play out in the other stories. Literary but still accessible; each story is wildly tonally different, but all are convincing and compelling. Mitchell showcases serious strength as a writer as each of those stories sound totally different (which is not easy for some authors to do; for example, a George R.R. Martin book will sound pretty similar, whether the book is about dragons in a fantasy setting called Westeros or about vampires in the antebellum south on a steamboat on the Mississippi). This is a dynamite read.

About the series: Being a gay reader, I am interested in LGBT books, but I haven’t always seen reviews clearly note if there are LGBT characters and how significant they are. These mini reviews are my way of addressing this problem.