- Do you believe that the six main characters are all the same soul reincarnated? What echoes of past lives (their own or others') does each person experience?
- All six main characters except Adam Ewing mention a comet birthmark. What significance, if any, do they think their birthmarks have? Do you think Adam Ewing has one he hasn't told us about?
- Why did David Mitchell choose to structure the novel in this way? Does it feel like a series of loosely connected novellas or like a complete novel?
- Is the Luisa Rey section a work of fiction? (We know this whole thing is fiction, but we mean within the context of the story as a whole. Work with us, here.) If so, does that make Adam Ewing and Robert Frobisher's lives fiction as well?
- What do you think precipitated The Fall that occurred between the Sonmi sections and the Zachry sections?
- Whose story is your favorite and why? Is it the theme, the characters, the structure, or something else?
- Each story has its own perspective. How would each story be different if told from the point of view of another character?
- Does the Cloud Atlas film accurately capture the book's themes? How would you do a movie differently?