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One morning, out on the ice, not long after my father had given me to Kalliokoski, I understood why this elevator--any elevator--is important. It means a building can be as tall as you like. As tall as you dare to allow it to be. A skyscraper. The Germans call them wolkenkratzers--cloud scratchers. In Finnish, the word is pilvenpiirtaja--cloud sketcher. I'm going to build one.As the lift transforms Esko's ambitions, so his brief childhood meeting with Russian aristocrat Katerina at a village fete leads to a stubborn pursuit that encompasses decades and continents. It is his blinkered dreams of a skyscraper, and his ephemeral love for Katerina that drive him through his time fighting in the bloody Finnish Civil War, pursuing his career in Helsinki and achieving his ambitions in crime-ridden prohibition New York. The story has a skilful structure, rich prose and an expressive style, although the author's passion for the subject of architecture can lead to passages occasionally becoming somewhat dry and involved. The plot has moments of predictability, but the story is told with enough style and pathos to make this forgivable. Readers will respond to the quality of the writing and be easily drawn into this rewarding saga. --Rachel Ediss
‘No one who opens “The Cloud Sketcher” will find it easy to stop reading before the last vertiginous page...Passionate and well researched...remarkable [for] its visceral feeling for architecture...Rayner’s eye is excellent.’ Chicago Tribune
‘Irresistible. It delivers surprise after surprise, all the way up to the last page...a complex and absorbing story.’ Time Out New York
‘Breathtaking...a passionate book that threads architecture, war and history through the story of two lovers.’ USA Today
‘A completely engaging read, an impressive meditation on longing and obsession that’s also a searching reflection on the act of creation itself.’ Jabari Asim, Washington Post
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