About a Book – The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed

Have you read The Annual Migration of Clouds? When I picked it up, I had read the Beneath the Rising series (aka The Void books), a Lovecraftian horror that can also be read as a metaphor for colonialism (and yes, I am still sad about Benjamin Franklin the Octopus). I’d read The Appletree Throne and The Ants of Bimbleby Hill, which left me wondering if the author was secretly channeling the ghost of a very old Bristish man. I knew I liked Premee Mohamed’s work. But I was utterly unprepared for Clouds.

I think The Annual Migration of Clouds might be the most profound & beautiful book I have ever read. When I finished the audiobook, I did something I have never done before – I immediately bought the physical book. I mean this quite literally. The “we hope you enjoyed this audiobook” verbiage was still playing when I knew I needed the physical book, went online, and got it. I needed to be able to hold the book, to see the words, to spend time with the shape of the sentences.

If you haven’t read it, oh, you’re in for an amazing time. The story, set in the near future, isn’t going where you think it’s going. And I don’t mean it’s twisty – it simply isn’t going where you think it is. Some readers will be unhappy to not know “what happens next” and if there is a sequel, I will read it, but I hope there never is. The book’s ending is masterful, and the question “now what?” is appropriate to ask in the greater context of the story. It’s post-apocalyptic climate-change fiction, but that doesn’t mean what you might think it does. I cannot improve on the author’s blurb on this book, which you can read here: The Annual Migration of Clouds | Premee Mohamed

I hope Clouds becomes assigned reading in high schools everywhere. It will speak to GenZ & Gen Alpha as directly as Catcher in the Rye spoke to generations past. And more students will get to interact with Premee Mohamed than anyone ever got to interact with J.D. Salinger. You need The Annual Migration of Clouds on your shelves. Oh, and cats like it too.