The Theory of Clouds
The Theory of Clouds by Stéphane Audeguy, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2007, is a literary fiction novel comprising 266 pages. The story centers on Akira Kumo, a retired couturier in Paris, who possesses the world’s largest collection of books about clouds. He enlists the help of Virginie Latour to catalog his library, during which he shares the narratives of three British figures deeply fascinated by clouds, including the real-life Quaker Luke Howard, who classified clouds in 1802.
Readers will discover the intertwining tales of these characters, including the painter Carmichael, reminiscent of John Constable, and the fictional Richard Abercrombie, who aims to create a definitive work on cloud description known as the Abercrombie Protocol. As Kumo sends Virginie to London to acquire this Protocol, the novel unfolds to reveal its significant secret and the connections among these men. Additionally, Kumo’s backstory as a survivor of the Hiroshima blast adds depth to the narrative, linking personal history with the broader themes of obsession and memory.
Official synopsis Publisher
The novel tells the story of Akira Kumo, a retired couturier living in Paris, owner of the world’s largest collection of books about clouds, and Virginie Latour, whom Kumo hires to help catalogue his library. While they work he tells her the story behind three figures in particular, all British, all obsessed by clouds: Luke Howard, a real-life Quaker who in 1802 wrote the first treatise classifying clouds (we still use it today); a painter named Carmichael, clearly based on John Constable, one of the most famous cloud painters of all time, and a fictional amateur meteorologist named Richard Abercrombie, who aspires to write the definitive book on cloud description, which would come to be known in cloud circles as the Abercrombie Protocol. Kumo sends Virginie Latour to London to buy the Protocol. By the end of the novel, we learn the Protocol’s great secret; we understand what binds these men together; and and we learn that Kumo himself is a survivor of the Hiroshima blast, in whose cloud his family vanished.
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