Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Might contain spoilers.
The first time I read Cloud Atlas was in 2013, a year after the movie was released, following the glowing articles about both on Birth.Movies.Death. (then called ‘Badass Digest’). I didn’t know what to expect, but I was undergoing my ‘storytelling awakening’ at the time and Cloud Atlas was the perfect reading material. I loved it enough that a friend—who also loved it—and I discussed making our own adaptation someday. (A guy can dream.)
Reading it again, I was initially a tad disappointed. I remembered the book as being a feat of storytelling and writing. The early chapters didn’t feel like that to me, all the way through the first third. It was when I got to the middle of the book that it reminded me just why I had fallen in love with it. Cloud Atlas (the book) is epic, amazing, masterful, and all those other superlatives, with a beautiful ending that moves you beyond words.