Cloud Atlas is the third novel by British author David Mitchell. Published in 2004, the fantastical speculative fiction book consists of six interconnected nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to the island of Hawai'i in a distant post-apocalyptic future. The author has said that the book is about reincarnation and the universality of human nature, and the title references a changing landscape over manifestations of fixed human nature. The title was inspired by the piece of music of the same name by Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi.