Cloud Atlas

The Cloud Atlas (Liam Callanan) is another book that I read ages ago (thanks Bec) and just loved for so many reasons.

This is the fascinating story of the effects of the Japanese balloon bombs, which swept across the Pacific to the United States during the remaining months of World War II. One of the best kept secrets of the War involved some 9,000 balloons made of paper or silk and carrying bombs being launched from Japan. These balloons were carried by high altitude winds across the Pacific to North America.


Once the ingenious but deadly bombs started landing, the U.S. scrambled teams to find and defuse them, and then keep them secret from an already anxious public. Eighteen-year-old Louis Belk was one of those men.


Set against the majestic backdrop of Alaska, this absorbing book is spiritual and mythical at the same time. A priest (Father Louis Belk) and an Alaskan native shaman (Ronnie a Yup'ik shaman) who are longtime friends/adversaries, tell their long-held secrets as one lays dying.

As he watches his friend die, Father Louis Belk reveals the fascinating story of balloon warfare in WWII, his own life as a top-secret bomb disposal specialist and the disturbing experiences with the madman Captain Gurley and Lily, the native woman they both loved.


I just loved the beauty and quietness of the balloons set against the chaos of wartime Alaska. Once again it provided me with an insight to a time and place that I know little about and I thought it was brilliant (you really do need to read it Bec).