Cloud Atlas: David Mitchell

6 novellas (each in a different literary genre) =  1 novel. How's he manage that then? Finding out is one of the pleasures of the book. Others are the brilliance of the story-telling (a narrative breaks off halfway through and you're immediately hooked by the one that interrupts it) and Mitchell's skills as a pasticheur. 

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Hi Pat,

I hadn't realised you hated me so much, but it figures. You wronged me, so I had to be a bastard. How else could you go on being the heroine of the story you tell yourself? I know; that's how it goes. We've all done something similar. Also I discover you tried to turm my kids against me, which was shitty. I forgive you on my own account. Whether they forgive you is up to them. Hey, I bet you hate me even more now for being so fucking understanding.

Love,

Tony