As always, Mitchell' nested stories are brilliantly crafted, woven through the book in a fascinating and frankly genius way. The individual parts are unique, and to my mind they stand on their own merit, as well as working in unison to provide a magnificent wider story, evolving and growing more complex as it goes on. I recommend this book to anyone who likes complex, introspective, multifaceted stories. Further, cloud atlas does a similar thing but more soundly and expediently, so give that a look too. Overall, this is a great read, albeit a long one, which I would wholeheartedly commend to fans of the genre.