Statues in the Cloud

One day, a writer in Japan receives a letter from a young fan who is dying from a mysterious disease. The young fan, Aya, gives the writer a challenge: “Come to Nagasaki and help me find seven pieces of a statue. If you can help me do this simple thing,” she tells him, “you will have cured me.”

What the writer soon discovers is that finding the seven pieces means telling the stories of seven unique individuals: a future governor of Tokyo, an American soldier from the Second World War, a folk hero from Miami, a young dancer in a future Hiroshima, an artificial intelligence from the far future, the writer’s own story, and the story of Aya.

As the writer and Aya learn more about this group of individuals, it becomes apparent that their stories are connected and that there is more at stake than just Aya’s life. The disease afflicting her has many forms: a vengeful god, a computer virus, and a contagious illness. If they fail to unravel the secret of Aya’s mysterious disease, the very survival of humanity could be at stake.