I saw Tom Hanks in a movie trailer one night, and I then proceeded to freak out because I love him and we’re secretly married (I wish). The trailer was for “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell. After I finished freaking out a second time because I saw that Jim Sturgess, Halle Berry and Hugh Grant were in it, I thought I should probably read the book that all these stars want to be a part of the movie adaption. The book has gotten many good reviews, and from interviews I’ve read from Hanks and Berry, the novel is deep and meaningful.

I read the summary of “Cloud Atlas” and immediately thought of “Love Actually,” “Valentines Day” and “New Years Eve.” I assumed from the wording of the summary that the book was about how different people touch, influence and tie into other people’s lives from the character’s decisions. Well, you know what they say about making assumptions, and I was wrong about this book. It spans six eras with six separate people’s stories. Through time, there is always something that connects the different characters.

The first part of the book is named “The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing.” It’s Ewing’s personal journal that he keeps while shipwrecked and onboard sailing back to San Francisco. He is so stupid I wanted to skip his story. He’s the typical 1800’s white male who doesn’t understand other cultures, mainly the tribes that inhabit the island he is on.

The second story in “Cloud Atlas” is “Letters from Zedelghem,” which are letters from Robert Frobisher to his friend (and possible lover) Rufus Sixsmith in the 1930s. Frobisher is disinherited and poor, so he goes to his musical idol’s home and begins to work with him. He gets himself into shenanigans, and I enjoyed reading his story. He finds the journal of Adam Ewing, and is intrigued by the story. He composes his masterpiece titled “Cloud Atlas Sexteth.”

The third story is “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery.” Luisa Rey meets older Rufus Sixsmith in the 1970s. Sixsmith is an engineer on the run for his life, and Rey is a journalist who discovers the danger. It soon becomes her life on the line. She finds the letters from Frobisher, and finds his masterpiece. She has never heard it, but instantly recognizes it.

The fourth story is “The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish.” Cavendish is a modern day editor who is tricked into staying at a retirement home by his brother. He is trying to make his escape. Before he is forced into the retirement home, he winds up with “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery” from a hopeful author. He doesn’t realize that it is a true story and assumes it is fiction.

The fifth story is “An Orison of Sonmi~451.” It is set in a future world where there are two different classes: the purebloods and fabricants. Fabricants are genetically made to be servants. Sonmi~451 escapes her servant life and becomes part of a revolution. She has seen part of the movie adaptation of “The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish.”

The final story is “Sloosha’s Crossin’ an’ Ev’rythin’ After.” It’s set in the distant future. A tribesman is telling the story about his primitive life after “the Fall.” Humanity basically dies out, and he is visited by Meronym, who is a survivor of “the Fall.” Who also is a part of the fifth story.

The book then goes back in time and concludes with the last half of Ewing’s story. The main theme of the book is reincarnation of one soul throughout time, and the reader only recognizes this from a comet shaped birthmark that each character describes. There is only one character that doesn’t go with the reincarnation of this one soul. From what I’ve seen of the trailer, there is also a focus on soul mates pushed in the movie that I didn’t catch in the book.

I think the trailer makes the book look a lot better than it actually is. However, I will be going to see this almost three hour film.