Book of Clouds

Chloe Aridjis has achieved something quite astonishing: a rethinking of one of our most complacent forms, the historical novel…. The writer she calls to mind is the Modernist Haruki Murakami, with his unsolved riddles and ultra-cool characters. It is a book that you press on friends – Helen Rumbelow * The Times *[An] exceptional debut novel…. a beautifully turned piece of writing of extraordinary assurance… As natural as breathing. Both vivid and dreamlike, at once very precise in its images and also enchantingly broad-brush atmospheric, this is a debut more captivating than any I’ve read in some time – Daniel Hahn * Independent on Sunday *The debut novel by the New York-born, now London-based, Aridjis comes highly recommended by literary heavyweights Paul Auster and Ali Smith, a choice emphasising both Aridjis’s transatlantic appeal and her literary sensibilities – Lesley Mcdowell * Scotsman *A hypnotic first novel about a young Mexican gal in Berlin who stumbles into friendship with an eccentric historian and the madness that ensues. This book has the power of dreams and still hasn’t left me – Junot DiazA stirring and lyrical first novel by a young writer of immense talent – Paul AusterA fresh and original voice…the book is a portrait of Berlin, a city famed for its richness and strangeness, hauntingly captured by Aridjis – Francesca Segal * The Observer *A most unusual debut… An entirely refreshing portrait of young womanhood, it is unselfconscious, uncompromising, wholly authentic – Justine Jordan * The Guardian *Exquisite – Boyd Tonkin * Independent *This is a haunting debut with an individual, poetic slant – Alastair Mabbot * Herald *It is Paul Auster, only better… This is a whimsical, confident book sustained by offbeat charm and intelligence – Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *

Chloe Aridjis was born in New York, and grew up in the Netherlands and Mexico City. She studied for a BA at Harvard, and gained her DPhil in nineteenth-century French poetry and magic from Oxford University. She then spent five years in Berlin and now lives in London.

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