The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

by David Mitchell

Be transported to a place like no other: a tiny, man-made island in the bay of Nagasaki, for two hundred years the sole gateway between Japan and the West. Here, in the dying days of the 18th-century, a young Dutch clerk arrives to make his fortune. Instead he loses his heart.

Step onto the streets of Dejima and mingle with scheming traders, spies, interpreters, servants and concubines as two cultures converge. In a tale of integrity and corruption, passion and power, the key is control - of riches and minds, and over death itself.


(From Publisher).

David Mitchell's first novel, Ghostwritten was published in 1999, when it won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His second,Number 9 Dream, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and in 2003 he was chosen as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Cloud Atlas, his third novel, won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the South Bank Show Literature Prize, and the Best Literary Fiction and Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year categories in the British Book Awards, as well as being shortlisted for a further six awards including the Man Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. It was followed by Black Swan Green, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Man Booker. His latest novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, was published in 2010.

Born in 1969, David Mitchell grew up in Worcestershire. After graduating from Kent University, he spent several years teaching in Japan, and now lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.

This historical novel set in Japan in the 18th century, tells us the fascinating forbidden love story between Jacob de Zoet, who works for the Dutch East India Company and a Japanese woman.

A masterful genre-busting historical novel which shows that a book can be both utterly profound and immensely entertaining.

With unwavering empathy for the two heroes, this historical novel carries the reader to Japan in 1799, on a trading post where two civilisations meet, confront and plot... only through translators. Never choosing a side, the writer offers a complex fiction rather than the usual clichés.

We are enthusiastic about this book for how it combines great narrative style with being also a novel of ideas, and for how it challenges the reader.

Eloquently written story about an important historical period featuring authentic characters.

This title was nominated for its exploration of intercultural relations, trust and betrayal, and racial and gender boundaries.

The book is a one-stop wonder - great writing, characters and story.

An engaging historical novel of exemplary literary merit concerning early Dutch trade in Japan.

Mitchell brings a new perspective to the historical novel, managing to capture both the political and personal while providing us with a good story.

A historical epic, lyrically composed of 19th century Japan, full of character, story, love and history.