Like Life of Pi, Cloud Atlas was based on a book that many considered to be unfilmable because it dealt more with ideas than it did with action.

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The real interest lies elsewhere, in the parts of Mr Stiglitz's book that are in effect a memoir of what life was like as an economic adviser, and indeed a considerable intellectual, in the bruising and often brutal world of Washington politics and policymaking.

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He spends the first half of the book justifying his redefinition of life in a lengthy narrative that combines personal memoir, Zen-like musings and scientific explanations.

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