Multiple perspectives across a millennium? Give me now!

"A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation—the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small."

One person's kindness stretches across a millennium, sparking a revolution in its wake. Power and ambition are central themes in Mitchell's captivating examination of human life. On a macro-level, power drives civilization to disaster; on a micro-level, power can lead people to do great things, but it can also manipulate relationships and has the ability to end life. When power threatens to end the 6 narrator's lives, how will they use their ambition to survive: by saving others, saving themselves, or exacerbating their decline?