The Cloud Sketcher

Rayner, Richard

ISBN 10: 0694525200 ISBN 13: 9780694525201

Publisher: Harperaudio, 2001

Synopsis

The Cloud Sketcher is a passionate tale of love, war and art that ranges from the icefields of the Arctic Circle at the dawn of the last century to the ruthless world of 1920'2 New York.

In a tiny Finnish village, Esko Vaananen mourns the death of his mother, who died in the same fire that so horribly scarred his face. At the brink of despair, he has a vision of an impossibly tall building rising gracefully from a frozen lake, disappearing into the clouds above. This "cloud sketcher," or skyscraper, sparks Esko's livelong quest for beauty. He becomes an architect, believing that if he can create something of unparalleled loveliness, surely he will be worthy of his true love, Katerina. This obsessive desire causes Esko to risk everything time and again: as a reluctant hero in the Finnish civil war; as a laborer on the treacherous high steel of a Manhattan riveting gang; and finally, as a man accused of murdering the husband of the woman he loves.

Preformed by Simon Jones

About this title

Review:

The Cloud Sketcher is a rich, intricate and satisfying story, and one for which that clichéd term "sweeping historical epic" is probably the most accurate description. Growing up in rural Finland in 1901, 11-year-old Esko bears scars on his face which he received trying to rescue his mother from their burning house a year before. Bereft and meek, Esko is later left by his political activist father with the local priest, who encourages his early interest in architecture by showing him a picture of the very first lift to be installed in Finland.

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

Review:

‘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

About this edition

• Publisher: Harperaudio
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0694525200
• ISBN 13: 9780694525201
• Binding: Audio Cassette