Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 20,230 ratings · 3,404 reviews

In 1799, Jacob de Zoet disembarks on the tiny island of Dejima, the Dutch East India Company’s remotest trading post in a Japan otherwise closed to the outside world. A junior clerk, his task is to uncover evidence of the previous Chief Resident’s corruption.

Cold-shouldered by his compatriots, Jacob earns the trust of a local interpreter and, more dangerously, becomes intr...more

Hardcover, 496 pages

Published June 29th 2010 by Random House

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2010

7th out of 100 books — 567 voters

Best Books of 2010

53rd out of 1,018 books — 2,202 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jun 01, 2010 Ken-ichi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: japan, snoot

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

74 likes · like · see review

Nov 23, 2012 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

THE APPRENTICE

WEEK 6 - THE SEMI-FINAL

Voiceover : Lord Sugar is looking for a historical novelist to invest in. He scoured the country for the very best. Twelve were selected to begin the process. After six weeks of hard battling, only three are left.* It's the Apprentice Week Six!

(We see a montage of the three remaining contestants, David Mitchell, Hilary Mantel and Sarah Waters frantically typing away on laptops).

This week's task : to write a complete historical novel in only seven days. All th...more

39 likes · like · see review

Jun 14, 2010 tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Since discovering David Mitchell a little over a year ago, I have devoured all five of his novels to date. Yet I still cannot say what it is that keeps me impatiently coming back for more.

He is a master of voices. He breathes life into characters quickly and effortlessly. He is not afraid to dive into the unknowable mysteries embedded within us. Time, life, dreams, death. Without the crutches of belief or disbelief, he dances around questions of the soul. His villains are ofttimes as compelling...more

63 likes · like · see review

Jul 13, 2010 Newengland rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-in-2010, contemporary

Remember Dr. Seuss's words, children: "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" In the case of wunderkind writer David Mitchell's THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET, you'll set your time machine dial for 1799 and a makeshift Dutch port called Dejima on the shores of Nagasaki, Japan.

But let's take it down another level. You'll start at the port and live with old salts that'll make the Pirates of the Caribbean look like so many Lord Fauntleroys. You'll visit the homes of the secretive Japanese magistrates....more Remember Dr. Seuss's words, children: "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" In the case of wunderkind writer David Mitchell's THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET, you'll set your time machine dial for 1799 and a makeshift Dutch port called Dejima on the shores of Nagasaki, Japan.

But let's take it down another level. You'll start at the port and live with old salts that'll make the Pirates of the Caribbean look like so many Lord Fauntleroys. You'll visit the homes of the secretive Japanese magistrates. You'll do some time in Dr. Marinus's "academy," witnessing some bone-chilling turn of THAT century operations (removal of a kidney stone, for instance, in full metal graphics). You'll go up into the mountains past Nagasaki, up to a castle where Japanese women are held in captivity but told they are "nuns" worshiping an obscure goddess. Over the river and through the woods you'll go in an exciting mission with samurais bent on rescuing one very special captive in this castle. And you'll even hit the low seas (off Dejima) and join British Captain Penhaligon as he wrestles with his conscience and his wits, trying to decide whether to attack the Dutch and Japanese or negotiate with them. Nautical chess games, anyone?

David Mitchell can flat-out write. Among contemporary writers, he reigns supreme (I would say in my book, but in HIS books, actually) for his ability to turn poetry into words and to make images dance in startling ways. This is a writer's writer with imagination and skill. And what's best is how he's constantly challenging himself as well. Here we have historical fiction in one of the most unusual of settings, yet you'll feel you're there and that you actually have an understanding of the mysterious land of the shoguns as well as the nefarious intrigues of the European traders. As you'd expect from Mitchell, the allusions are rich and varied, too. Through characters such as Dr. Marinus, the surgeon/musician/man of science as well as the arts with the Dutch, you'll hear references to the Greeks, the Romans, the ancient Arabs, the Bible, mythology, philosophers, scientists, and whatnot. An irascible and complex man, Marinus was one of my favorites, though his role was rather minor.

Bigger roles go, of course, to Jacob and the disfigured Japanese midwife he falls in love with, Orito Aibagawa. Jacob De Zoet, a practical and religious man, is honest to a fault. Among the Dutch lowlifes, he is both gasoline and match, in other words, and his zealous opposition to embezzling and skimming profits and black marketing make him many enemies. Orito has her own problems. A student of Dr. Marinus's, she attracts unwanted attention from the Japanese nobles (some "noble" and others vicious) when she dallies with the pale-skinned, auburn-haired Jacob. When she disappears, the novel takes off to some of the more exotic locales mentioned early in this review.

Some readers may struggle with the number of Japanese names and characters, especially at the "nunnery," but Mitchell at least is studious in his characterization and the special quirks he bestows to his creations. At times Mitchell can overwrite, too, when he should move on, but those instances are neither frequent nor extended. The book's best scenes come at the end when the added dimension of a British frigate is provided. The match of wits between Capt. Penhaligon and De Zoet when Dejima is bottled up by the man-of-war is a joy to read. Mitchell is at his best when dealing with the psychological and the power of decisions made in moments of crisis to alter history.

If you've had your fill of beach reads this summer, THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET is your antidote. It's serious contemporary literature by one of our more gifted scribes. It's a grown-up's book that contains not only incredible description but a sound plot. And no, it won't baby you with constant, hold-on-to-your-seat action, but you can handle that and you can appreciate a novel for its construction and its grander designs as well, right?

So why not give it a places-you'll-go?(less)

73 likes · like · see review

Dec 04, 2011 Whitaker rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, japan, 2011-read

On Mitchell's Writing

Mitchell is one of my favourite writers, and I really have to squee about how masterfully he uses words. Here’s an example of his writing in this novel. Mitchell is setting a scene where Jacob is waiting in the antechamber to his new boss’s office. Along the walls of the antechamber are displayed specimens of exotic animals preserved in formaldehyde. As he looks at the specimens, Jacob recalls the events that led him to this place. Now Mitchell could have written it rather c...more

35 likes · like · see review

May 13, 2010 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: jo, NewEngland, Krokodil, .... maybe even Alan?

My first [UPDATE 5/12 -- "only"... *sigh*:] win on First Reads.

*MarvAlberty* YESSS.

Which kind of review do you want? (Well... why do you read?)

Some 400 pages into the novel, various narrative fuses burning ever more quickly toward combustion and the promise of a big closing bang, one of the protagonists (Dutch clerk/naif/all-around good guy Jacob d Z) climbs out on the roof of a brothel. He's joined by his superior Van Cleef, one of the four hundred twenty-seven well-defined supporting character...more My first [UPDATE 5/12 -- "only"... *sigh*:] win on First Reads.

*MarvAlberty* YESSS.

Which kind of review do you want? (Well... why do you read?)

Some 400 pages into the novel, various narrative fuses burning ever more quickly toward combustion and the promise of a big closing bang, one of the protagonists (Dutch clerk/naif/all-around good guy Jacob d Z) climbs out on the roof of a brothel. He's joined by his superior Van Cleef, one of the four hundred twenty-seven well-defined supporting characters, who proceeds over the next few pages to light a new, short fuse -- he spins a tale of how he came to the Dutch trading island/port of Dejima, a tale of illicit sexual relation, briefly yet compellingly sketching the sociopolitical milieu of Cape Town, a quick rush of a ripping yarn, as revelatory of Van Cleef's character as it is ripping. And then the men retreat from the balcony and we are reminded of what furious nailbiting tension had existed--before those few lovely pages' prestidigitation distracted--and we're right back in it.

Mitchell manages here a balance between an overarching narrative momentum and a desire to travel each digressive back-alley and back-story. The book hums and thumps and gallops with Story, a thousand "and thens" of possibility and consequence. (And unlike his prior novels, it all seems more cohesive, more fully integrated, without sacrificing his--and my--delight in narrative proliferation.)

I get my gee-whiz from other novelist gewgaws, too. Some (see below), with good reason, lament Mitchell's overreliance on Writing, maybe rather than story. His sidetracks can seem more authorial play, to some, than readerly invitation. Yet for me, distraction and attraction run in the same direction--Plot is served by plots and by Play, and when the prose flirts with language games (or, hell, climbs on the leg and rigorously humps away), or when the structure is as visible as the stream of story, I am in the best writers' hands even more fully engrossed, even as I'm constantly paying attention to the writing (and not just the story). Back to the magic analogy: I'm as happy watching the trick when I can see the wires and the stagecraft as when I'm dumbfounded. The performance can be just as dazzling, just as delirious--and I still want to see the volunteer sawed in half even if I am watching for the mirrors and the deception. Here, for those aggrieved by DM's earlier games, I think you get the best of all possible magic acts -- you can keep your eye on the saw and the box and the body, and delight in the trick, but you can also step back and marvel at the joy of the visible Writerly trickery.

I imagine others read for so many other good reasons, so many of them fully embodied here--a deep sense of place and history? Check. (And yet effortless! So often I read historical fiction in a wikidaze, endless oatmealy detail gumming up the narrative works, every moment some fine-grained attention to some fine point of contextual research, but here Mitchell delights in the rich idiosyncratic otherness of the past. A similar complaint could be defined around Traveloguerhythmia, but Mitchell's Japan avoids the Clavellesque--de Zoet not on some fast track to Shogun, the collision of cultures a prompt for Mitchell's nuanced attention to misunderstanding, of the endless complexity of knowing one another.) And so on, and so on.

It's a gorgeous epic feast of a novel, with all kinds of writerly and readerly courses for any number of tastes. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and whatever your prior experience with Mitchell--fan, foe, ignorant--I think this could be a wonderful surprise.(less)

23 likes · like · see review

view all 42 comments

Nicola Turner EVER_SO_SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT.
Mike, I agree wholeheartedly with your review, although at times I had to stretch my willing-suspension-of-disbelief to t...more
Jul 31, 2010 05:13pm

jo finished this. i wonder for most of it *how* it was a david mitchell novel, then the last part (the part where everything speeds up and comes together...more
Jan 08, 2011 10:33pm

Jul 30, 2011 Kinga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

David Mitchell and I had not been introduced before. I knew he had written something about clouds and dreams and this looked pretty so I took it home with me.

It is a book about Jacob de Zoet, who in 1799 arrives as a clerk on Dejima, an artificial island near Nagasaki and the only point of contact between Japan and the outside world. It is also a book about an English ship and a mountain shrine and secret religious cult. It is a book about Orito, Japanese midwife whose face is half burnt but the...more David Mitchell and I had not been introduced before. I knew he had written something about clouds and dreams and this looked pretty so I took it home with me.

It is a book about Jacob de Zoet, who in 1799 arrives as a clerk on Dejima, an artificial island near Nagasaki and the only point of contact between Japan and the outside world. It is also a book about an English ship and a mountain shrine and secret religious cult. It is a book about Orito, Japanese midwife whose face is half burnt but the book's most noble characters seem to fall in love with despite that. This book is about so many things in so many different ways that it is rather hard to write anything coherent about the plot. Mitchell has one hell of imagination (and patience for research) and I was left in awe. “The Ten Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet” is tour de force, and unlike the blurb writers, I don’t use this term lightly. Writing this novel must’ve been a massive undertaking but I am not sure regular human beings like you and me can keep up with Mitchell as he jumps around like a flea.

The opening chapter blew me off and the first part of the book promised a solid historical novel. Then everything was turned around and we found ourselves in a Japanese shrine taken out straight from an airport bookshop bestseller. It was mysterious and romantic and a little bit silly. I thought: “David, really? I know that authors think they can get away with just about anything in the middle of the book but don’t you think you are pushing your luck a little bit here?”. David took my advice and abandoned the shrine plotline halfway through and took us back to Jacob de Zoet just when we forgot he was supposed to be the main character and stopped caring about him altogether. After an episode on an English ship starring a captain suffering from gout we get to the epilogue with Jacob de Zoet, as though Mitchell was convinced we needed a closure. As far as epilogues go this one was as unnecessary as the epilogue in the last Harry Potter book.

I really don’t know what to make out of this book. It read easily even if Mitchell has the most bizarre writing style ever. Oh boy, does he love his suspension points... They are everywhere... Sometimes to say that many things happen at once... she looked outside the window... As if we didn’t know that many things can happen at once... the washing machine started the spinning cycle… And on page 383 Mitchell uses suspension points 21 times... My flatmate’s alarm went off but he is still sleeping...

There was just too much of everything in this book and in the end it seems that all these things have cancelled each other out. Just what was I supposed to get out of this novel? What point (if any) was it trying to make?
Don’t get me wrong. I did enjoy it, at times I enjoyed it a lot, even the airport paperback bits, but I think Mitchell’s imagination can be put to a much better use... Someone flushed the toilet...
(less)

29 likes · like · see review

Nov 24, 2012 Nandakishore Varma rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The story of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a divide during a turbulent historical period is the staple of many an historical novel. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, at first glane, is just that: however, the author has entered uncharted waters by venturing into an area which is seldom explored in historical novels, by choosing Japan during her international isolation as the venue and making the clerk of the erstwhile Dutch East India company, the unlikely hero.

Jacob de Zoet has joine...more The story of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a divide during a turbulent historical period is the staple of many an historical novel. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, at first glane, is just that: however, the author has entered uncharted waters by venturing into an area which is seldom explored in historical novels, by choosing Japan during her international isolation as the venue and making the clerk of the erstwhile Dutch East India company, the unlikely hero.

Jacob de Zoet has joined the Dutch East India Company as a clerk, due to reasons common to many young men of his generation: in the hope of making a quick fortune to marry the girl of his dreams. But all too soon he discovers that to proceed in his career, he has to sell his soul to the devil. He is that anomaly, an honest man in a European commercial enterprise in a corrupt era. Jacob refuses to do this, and falls afoul of his superiors, ruining his bright career chances: to compound his woes, he falls in love with Orito Aibagawa, a Japanese midwife with a burn disfiguring half her face. His already hopeless suit becomes even more impossible when Orito is sold into virtual slavery at the Mount Shiranui shrine to pay off her dead father's debts by her stepmother. Deliverance comes for Jacob and Orito, however, at the end, but not in any way envisaged by them.

Mitchell's novel is panoramic in sweep and flawless in execution. His technique is cinematic: sentences follow the principles of montage, so that each thought process of a character, each speech is interspersed with happenings in the surroundings (in fact, all the while I was reading this novel, I was running a movie in my mind: especially part two in the Shiranui shrine which was in Multicolour and Panavision and directed by Kurosawa). This, along with the fact that it is written entirely in the present tense, gives a sense of immediacy to the narrative. The characterisation is also terrific; especially the villain, Enomoto, is worthy of Amrish Puri!

Then why the three stars? Well, IMO, what the novel provides in technique it misses in substance. For all its page-turning suspense and colourful background, I found the story to be rather lacking in a central focus. I was confused at the end on what the author was trying to say through this novel. After rising to a satisfying plateau through parts one and two, part three was a partial let-down: and the resolution was totally unsatisfying. Let us just say that Mitchell raised my hopes only to dash them to the ground.

Maybe my high hopes at the beginning made my review a trifle harsh. But don't be put off, it's a good read anyway.(less)

24 likes · like · see review

Apr 27, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, historical-fiction, japan, the-sea

Last month I was visiting the MFA in Boston. After an hour or two of wandering through rooms sporting giant, bombastic 19th century American paintings, I came upon a dim hall with small, colorful prints hanging from the wall, like this one:

Sugatami Bridge, Omokage Bridge, by Utagawa Hiroshige

Sugatami Bridge, Omokage Bridge, by Utagawa Hiroshige

This was my first taste of Utagawa Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, and I was immediately transfixed.

Although the Edo referred to in the Hiroshige prints is a place (a city later to be renamed Tokyo), Edo also refers to the period of Japanese his...more

27 likes · like · see review

Oct 28, 2012 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: quirky, d-mitch, historical

I believe that David Mitchell may be, of all the contemporary authors I've read, one of the most versatile. Although I could simply be mistakenly (again) be viewing his work as versatile. I believe there are meant to be some more of his meta-linguistic features in this book. Although I didn't stop any familiar characters. Reading Black Swan Green and Ghostwritten may help me to find those little hidden characters however.

The title of this book - which I think must be classed as a kind of zany hi...more
I believe that David Mitchell may be, of all the contemporary authors I've read, one of the most versatile. Although I could simply be mistakenly (again) be viewing his work as versatile. I believe there are meant to be some more of his meta-linguistic features in this book. Although I didn't stop any familiar characters. Reading Black Swan Green and Ghostwritten may help me to find those little hidden characters however.

The title of this book - which I think must be classed as a kind of zany historical fiction with some slight fantasy elements (very, very minor, as in only hinted at to do with ki or life force energy) - has to do with the fact that Japan is also known as The Land of a Thousand Autumns, or something like that.* The storyline follows Jacob de Zoet, a Dutch clerk working for the Dutch East Indies Trading Company in Nagasaki. The story starts off in a complacent manner (excluding the detailed childbirth) and in fact I was not gripped by the beginning. It took around a hundred pages for me to emotionally delve into the story and go beyond the surface of the beautiful writing.

The story is a story about de Zoet as a clerk and his company dealings as well as a love story and a story about a demoniacal and arcane cult. In this sense the story is about humanity. It is a story about how we as people respond to power and authority. How we control our lusts and our desires. It is a story that questions what love is. Jacob claims that he loves Orito but does he really? Do his actions reveal this? Jacob may be honourable (view spoiler) but does he act when he needs to. For me this book captured several ideas that are present in Mitchell's book Cloud Atlas, particularly those thoughts about mankind's will to domineer life. I particularly liked the sequence when they were discussing slavery and the will of mankind. Race remains one of the great myths created by 'science' and humanity as part of our means of creating barriers of control. People like having power and control.

This is the third of David Mitchell's books I have read. It is a strong historical fiction novel and definitely worth reading. Overall it has an interesting story, some fascinating and deep themes and it's well written too.

(less)

15 likes · like · see review

May 16, 2013 Richard rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book is very pleasantly written, taken line by line, and is an interesting window onto a time I find underexplored. De Zoet himself makes me want to scream, and Orito is so unlikely a heroine that I found myself snorting a lot. I've heard lots of carrying on about how many characters there were in the book, but this presented no problem for me, not sure why.

Perhaps this is a case of overselling a book, I don't know. I doubt it, frankly; I think I'd be chucking it in the charity bin if it wa...more

13 likes · like · see review

Aug 24, 2010 Aldrin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

That the cover of the trade paperback edition of David Mitchell’s 2010 novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet , is the spitting image of that of Hendrik Doeff’s nineteenth-century memoir, Recollections of Japan , is no small coincidence. Both covers, characterized by traditional Japanese art-inspired illustrations, depict the arrival of a large Western ship on Japanese shores. And rightly so, as both books tell of the experiences — fictional in one, real in the other — of an Occident livin...more

11 likes · like · see review

Jan 07, 2013 Cecily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: oriental, miscellaneous-fiction, historical-fiction-set-pre-20c

A good, and exhaustively researched historical novel, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as any of Mitchell's others, despite a life-and-death opening. Indeed, life and death is a continuing theme, both of individuals (a major character is a midwife) and of culture and empire.

Jacob de Zoet is an ambitious and uppstanding young clerk. In 1799, he arrives in Dejima, the Dutch concession in Japan, and the only port which traded with the rest of the world. He has five years to prove himself an ac...more

15 likes · like · see review

Jan 19, 2011 Sue rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, read-in-2011, favorites, japan

I really enjoyed this book immensely, probably a 4.5 of 5. It's so close to a 5 and someday I may return and decide it is.

The story grabbed me from the start and I believe that has to have some connection to Mitchell's skills as a writer and story teller as well as the story itself as tales of the sea and exploration are usually of no interest to me. His picture of the cultures of the time, both Japanese and the transplanted Europeans, captured my interest from the first pages and always had a f...more

8 likes · like · see review

Apr 29, 2012 ·Karen· rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, brits

Is there anything David Mitchell can't do? Dazzling is the word for this. Fizzing with life, it appears at first to be a conventional historical novel, but then swoops into speculative fiction that is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood or Kazuo Ishiguro, with human babies being 'farmed' for nefarious reasons, then back to the historical world and a wonderfully exciting naval stand-off, where Our Hero is saved by his red hair. (You'll have to read it to find out). James Wood, a critic who I admire gr...more

27 likes · like · see review

Oct 09, 2012 Angus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-and-blogged, 5-stars

Original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

The Dutchman in Dejima

The book trailer shows us a ship sailing slowly over the specious seas of The Land of a Thousand Autumns. Seagulls fly over the sea foam eternally reaching for a kiss of the clouds’ cheeks. The clouds languidly move aside to unveil the quaint island of Dejima, the sole gateway between Europe and Japan.

The little community of European traders and interpreters, spies and servants, is the anchor of this novel. This, and the interaction with th...more

8 likes · like · see review

Feb 04, 2012 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: light-orange-band

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon? Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned? Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains? Can you paint with all the colours of the wind?

Jacob de Zoet's love for a Japanese midwife has him asking all the questions "native" girls usually leave in the minds of sensitive liberal colonialists. And we aren't ever allowed to forget quite how "right on" de Zoet is. The author stages a completely unprovoked and illogical attack that hospital...more Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon? Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned? Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains? Can you paint with all the colours of the wind?

Jacob de Zoet's love for a Japanese midwife has him asking all the questions "native" girls usually leave in the minds of sensitive liberal colonialists. And we aren't ever allowed to forget quite how "right on" de Zoet is. The author stages a completely unprovoked and illogical attack that hospitalises a handsome slave. This is just so that de Zoet can demonstrate his anti-slavery credentials. Then there's some boring maths shit about signing a ledger, just so that we know that he's honest.

In fact, de Zoet's such a modern and honest chap that he's not even very good at the one thing they could do well in those crazy olden days: be secretly in love with someone. He's completely shit at this.

Next: Japan's Pocahontas Midwife suddenly finds herself in Japan's answer to Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale". Which is obviously completely nuts. Only it then becomes even more sinister and even more nuts. It's hard not to laugh, but also really hard not to keep reading.

Remember that old tree / old woman combo thing that Pocahontas sang with in the Disney film? My little sister had the Happy Meal toy of that thing. Anyway, here she is: an old herbalist. She happens to live down the mountain from the bizarre Bond-villain lair where Pocahontas Midwife is living her Atwoodian nightmare. This old woman ensures a rescue is on the cards...

I can't tell you what happens, but it is very exciting.

When that's over, it feels like no one knows where we are in the plot or what is supposed to happen next. For something to do, de Zoet finally gets laid and then one of the Dutchies tells us a really long story about his boring life.

That's coming to an end and it looks like there'll be another embarrassing silence, but then the Brits arrive!

The bad news is that they've brought a ship full of characters and thus lots more backstories. Worse, the arrival of one of the British means that a Dutch, whose backstory we have yet to hear, is obliged to share. It's weird because we have a plot at this point ... something is happening other than characters talking about their lives ... yet all we get is more blah, blah, blah and then I was beaten by an officer on the poop deck, and then blah, blah, blah.

The good thing is that the Japanese and the Dutch can unite against the British, and this new respect and friendship means that they can take on Japan's Bond villain and his weird Atwoodian mountain nightmare.

The end.

Ogawa was from Kochi! Woop!(less)

10 likes · like · see review

Jan 14, 2013 Shari rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

“A Thousand Autumns…” The title of this book is quite a giveaway: a thousand autumns… a thousand disappointments, heartbreaks, tears. And Jacob de Zoet’s story – of the years he spends in Japan in the early 19th century – doesn’t fail to give these. Although the book offers another meaning to the title, and it will give another layer of meaning to the narrative, the story, for me, will always follow the metaphorical one.

Jacob’s life in Nagasaki is not an easy one. Living behind one of the few e...more “A Thousand Autumns…” The title of this book is quite a giveaway: a thousand autumns… a thousand disappointments, heartbreaks, tears. And Jacob de Zoet’s story – of the years he spends in Japan in the early 19th century – doesn’t fail to give these. Although the book offers another meaning to the title, and it will give another layer of meaning to the narrative, the story, for me, will always follow the metaphorical one.

Jacob’s life in Nagasaki is not an easy one. Living behind one of the few effective Iron Curtains ever put up by man, Jacob must not only struggle to attain an amount of freedom to profess his religion and satisfy his social curiosity and cravings, but learn a language so unlike anything he has heard in life before as well. To any non-Japanese who lives or has lived in Japan the struggle Jacob undergoes is completely identifiable. Mitchell, having lived in Japan, is well in the know of Jacob’s lingual hardships. Mitchell included here and there in the story how foreign words and names become “Japan-ized” as they are accommodated in the Japanese language. How de Zoet, pronounced da zoot, becomes “dazuto” – or how MacDonalds, a 3-syllable name could end up having 6, pronounced Makkudonarudo – nothing like the original pronunciation anymore.

Jacob’s story is not only about cultural adjustments, but also about love, rebellion, manipulation and living without the very things you most desire in life. It is also a story about determination and dedication to remain uncorrupted and of deeds to make up for past mistakes and weaknesses. These are most vivid in Jacob’s love for a Japanese woman whom he rescues from a lifetime of enslavement and his steadfastness not to follow the footsteps of his corrupt officers. And Mitchell tells Jacob’s passion with the Japanese-Dutch trading and 19th century Nagasaki as backdrop. He really went to great lengths to contextualize the story. The illustrations are interesting, albeit the selection odd (why the picture of a flea, for example? Or a baby while still in the mother’s womb?) But Mitchell, I’m beginning to realize, is a master of terse but deep dialogues, of fresh and graphic metaphors. He gives plenty of these in the story and they are quite refreshing, humorous – and memorable.
(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 23, 2012 Tocotin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-literature, far-east, historical-fiction, my-own-books, western-books-about-japan

Before I read this book, I saw an interview with the author and thought him a nice guy; and it's evident in his writing too. He's kind and compassionate towards women, slaves, children and oppressed groups in general, and in a subtle, ironic way. I think it's rare in authors (male or female), so thumbs up for that.
Another thing I liked was the ending. Not all (actually scarcely any) of the stories are completed, but the way the beginning scene turned out to be crucial for the ending was quite im...more Before I read this book, I saw an interview with the author and thought him a nice guy; and it's evident in his writing too. He's kind and compassionate towards women, slaves, children and oppressed groups in general, and in a subtle, ironic way. I think it's rare in authors (male or female), so thumbs up for that.
Another thing I liked was the ending. Not all (actually scarcely any) of the stories are completed, but the way the beginning scene turned out to be crucial for the ending was quite impressive. I also sort of began to warm up to the main character (I mean Jacob) at the end, but my favorite was the Japanese translator Uzaemon, and then the magistrate Shiroyama. In fact, the Japanese characters were very well written, I think. As to the Europeans, I'm sorry to say I have a feeling I've already met those fellows once, namely in Shogun: all smelly, obnoxious, ignorant, cruel and plainly stupid. Oh well. It will be a happy day when I finally come across a novel about Japan which has foreigners in it, and treats BOTH them and the Japanese fairly. Alas, I fear it won't happen anytime soon.
Back to the book. I didn't like the narrative style at all, because I could see the effort that went into it, at the expense (I'm afraid) of the plot and pace. The dialogues and monologues sounded very, I don't know, overwrought and unnatural. Especially in the parts when several characters, one after another, suddenly decided to tell Jacob their whole lives - at that moment any action just came to a grinding halt.
The first part of the book was really difficult to get through because there were so many people and each and every one of them seemed to have something to add to the story. I thought, hey, but they all look the same, and they are all worthless, stupid, smelly Europeans, why should I care? And it turned out I shouldn't have, because the second part didn't have much to do with the first. Instead of Dejima and Europeans, the story switched to the crazy hybrid cult in the mountains (it was so cheesy I enjoyed it a lot). In the third part the action went in a different direction, because a British ship appeared all of a sudden in Nagasaki and began to threaten Dejima. I didn't really understand the relevance of this particular story (can't say more for fear of spoilers), but it was also kind of fun. I liked the poor gouty captain.
What else? There were the ubiquitous tables (I enjoy hunting for tables in historical fiction about Japan), there was a strange thing about unmarried girls blackening their teeth (they didn't, but maybe it's a Nagasaki thing?), and Lord Abbot and his cult annoyed me a lot. Yes, in Edo period and before there was a general cohabitation and concord between Buddhism and native religions, but there was no such thing as "Shinto monastery" and the very word Shinto wasn't even that much in use. If a feudal lord became an abbott, it's highly unlikely he'd continue as the master of the domain, he would be considered as retired and his son/heir would be the head of the clan. Also, Shinto gods in general abhor blood and death, so... I may be wrong, but I can't help the feeling that the author is kind of pulling the collective leg of his readership.
The afterword was funny. It read as if David Mitchell - a very ambitious writer, unconventional, but with a firmly established "literary" outlook - has just discovered that popular fiction exists, and decided to try it with a great zeal, and immediately wrote a treatise on it. I got me some nice lolz out of this situation :)(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2010 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mitchell is supposed to be a master of voices, but he continually uses the same framework throughout this book.

"I wonder, thought (Character A), about (subject one)"

and

"He stopped to consider, thought (Character B), about (issue two)"

This sentence structure is pervasive throughout the otherwise mostly enjoyable 469 page novel. It becomes a very apparent tick before long. Additionally, about half way through, I became acutely aware that I may have been reading a romance novel, or at least a very...more Mitchell is supposed to be a master of voices, but he continually uses the same framework throughout this book.

"I wonder, thought (Character A), about (subject one)"

and

"He stopped to consider, thought (Character B), about (issue two)"

This sentence structure is pervasive throughout the otherwise mostly enjoyable 469 page novel. It becomes a very apparent tick before long. Additionally, about half way through, I became acutely aware that I may have been reading a romance novel, or at least a very weak and failing romance novel.

The lead character, Jacob De Zoet, is a very obvious stand-in for the author with only minor tweaks (he's got red hair, is dutch). Jacob is an bright, literary fellow living in the Japanese trading port of Dejima at the beginning of the 19th Century. He falls, inexplicably, into the shopworn madame-butterfly-scenario (yawn) with a japanese medical student with a scar on her face from childhood (note to authors, make your characters have something about them that makes the reader pity them, it draws them in!). De Zoet suffers under the misrule of fools and general backward, provincial attitudes, yet keeps his integrity and ultimately prospers.

Mitchell has fallen into the very large trap of taking modern sensibilities and attitudes, and transporting them back in time, to judge and generally feel pity and distain for people from the distant past. (How would a smart, liberal, literary, European fellow go about life in Japan in 1800? Read this book and find out! ) If you're going to write a novel taking place in the middle ages, have the characters have a middle-ages worldview. If you write an enlightenment-era novel, the characters should have enlightenment-era worldviews and attitudes. Isn't this taught in creative writing classes? Wouldn't this be taught on the first day of College Lit 101? This is as basic as "the views of the characters do not necessarily reflect the views of the author" and similar, related 'Basics of Literature'. Regardless, the final chapter contains some dazzlingly good passages where Mitchell's prose approaches, or at least apes, the musicality of Joyce. The end is also reassuringly warm and memorable.

A well-wrought but ill-conceived and therefore ultimately mediocre novel, with less vigour and genius than either of the two novels of his I have read, Black Swan Green and Cloud Atlas. However, this novel will be a big hit and win many awards. Once an author is established as a 'brand', it is hard for them to really fail to attract readers no matter what mire and dreck then plunge up (cf. John Updike, John Irving, perhaps even Rushdie).(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Jun 13, 2010 Rhys Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Set in Japan near the opening of the 19th Century, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet tells the story of Dejima, a Dutch trading post just off the Nagasaki coast. Because Japan was shut off from the world, Dejima was a window to the strange, private culture of hierarchy and intrigue.

Jacob de Zoet arrives as an employee of the Dutch East Indies company for a tenure at this far flung outpost of the Dutch Empire, sent by his soon to be father-in-law to earn some money and respect. But de Zoet,...more

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 04, 2011 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was happy to see Mitchell try his hand at historical fiction. While he’s always been considered an immensely skilled writer and a superb storyteller, it's his inventive structuring that seems to bring forth the highest praise. Read Cloud Atlas to see if you agree. With this most recent work, as he said in a post-publication interview, he was trying a more straightforward narrative form – one without gewgaws (I think that was the word he used, or maybe it was “jiggery-pokery”). I’m pleased to r...more I was happy to see Mitchell try his hand at historical fiction. While he’s always been considered an immensely skilled writer and a superb storyteller, it's his inventive structuring that seems to bring forth the highest praise. Read Cloud Atlas to see if you agree. With this most recent work, as he said in a post-publication interview, he was trying a more straightforward narrative form – one without gewgaws (I think that was the word he used, or maybe it was “jiggery-pokery”). I’m pleased to report that he succeeded beyond all expectations, even with the ropes of convention constraining him.

Jacob was an earnest young Dutchmen amongst the motley assemblage at a remote trading post on Dejima, an island near Nagasaki. The story began in 1799 at a time when Japan was a very closed society. In fact, the isolated post offered the only real exposure to the Western way of life. Unfortunately, honor was scarce on all sides of a typical Dutch East Indies Company transaction. Jacob, a junior clerk at the time, did meet some virtuous people, though. Foremost among them was a midwife named Orito Aibagawa who was studying medicine under Marinus, the highly skilled, highly evolved physician on the island. Orito was a promising student, empathetic, and attractive despite a bad burn mark on the side of her face. Young Jacob was smitten.

Romance wasn’t easy, though, for reasons the reader soon discovers. Jacob had other travails, too, when he refused to falsify one of the shipping documents. He was demoted and made to report to a conniving, downright scurvy rival. Then Orito was sent away. And it sure didn’t help matters when the language and culture were so different and there were so few people he could trust.

I’d rather not get too deep into the plot (though it’s a worthy one) and instead focus on the book’s other qualities. I’m convinced that David Mitchell is incapable of committing a bad sentence to paper. He’s also very good with character development as we see with Jacob, Orito, and various translators, magistrates, and seafarers. And that rare storytelling ability I mentioned, it takes the action well beyond the island. He leads us up a mountain to a nunnery harboring secrets and to treacherous parts of the Japanese shogunate.

I was already a big Mitchell fan so it was interesting to me to see the contrasts with his earlier works. One thing that was different was the immense amount of research involved in putting a book like this together. In fact, there is a section at the end where Mitchell appends a short essay on the topic of historical fiction. He said he’d tried earlier to apply the antiquated language of the times, making “extensive word lists to incorporate into [his] text—and ended up with Blackadder.” He also mentioned the danger in showing off his recently acquired scholarship at the expense of narrative flow. Even so, one criticism of the book was that he may have gone a little too far with his descriptive passages. Once the story gained momentum, though, that was no longer an issue.

I wanted to give this the full five stars, but in the end couldn’t quite do it. My problem was with Jacob. He seemed a tad too forthright, at times, with a lack of people smarts. We admire his integrity and hard work, but can’t always see his human aspect. Maybe it’s just that I’m so used to really liking (or at least understanding the frailties of) Mitchell’s main characters and had been hoping to do so again. Overall, though, this was a great reading experience. And my view of Mitchell himself is still as high as any cloud in the sky, mapped or otherwise.
(less)

13 likes · like · see review

May 09, 2013 Lorenzo is currently reading it

Shelves: british, 2013-readings

Halfway through the novel.

Compelling story all right, but I'm quite disappointed by the historical inaccuracies of this book. I believe Mitchell should have studied his subject more before embarking on such an ambitious novel.

I'm not an expert on 18th century Japan, but there are a few bits of information here which left me dubious while leafing through the pages. I will give you two.

1. It's the year 1799 and Mitchell tells us that some Japanese women spend their time playing mahjong. Now this...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 09, 2011 Laysee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is a historical novel at its best. David Mitchell impresses with his imagination, storytelling skills, and detail to characterization. I read the first two pages and knew this would be a literary treat.

The protagonist, Jacob de Zoet, is a pastor's son and an officer (clerk) of the Dutch East Indies Company based in the port of Nagasaki, on the island of Dejima, Japan. We first see him arriving at Dejima with his sea chest and a hidden copy of the Psalter (C...more The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is a historical novel at its best. David Mitchell impresses with his imagination, storytelling skills, and detail to characterization. I read the first two pages and knew this would be a literary treat.

The protagonist, Jacob de Zoet, is a pastor's son and an officer (clerk) of the Dutch East Indies Company based in the port of Nagasaki, on the island of Dejima, Japan. We first see him arriving at Dejima with his sea chest and a hidden copy of the Psalter (Christianity having been outlawed in feudal Japan), which he hoped would not be confiscated. de Zoet had to make his fortune in the next five years in order to win the hand of his wealthy fiancé, Anna, in Holland.

The novel was set in Edo-era Japan, 1799. Dejima was a trading post requisitioned by the Dutch East Indies Company. de Zoet was a book keeper tasked to audit the fraudulent accounts of the Dutch trade miles deep in corruption. One wondered how an earnest and principled officer could hold his own and survive the political minefield of treachery and intrigue.

What I found most interesting was Mitchell’s many voices and rather astute observation of the cultural divide between the Japanese magistrates/court interpreters and their European traders. His ear seemed uncannily attuned to the way Dutch may be construed in Japanese and vice versa. The communication and miscommunication (inevitable in translation) contributed much understated humor. I derived some perverse pleasure registering the frustration of the Dutch demigods who were trying to make sense of an inscrutable Asian culture, where "to not say no is to half say yes". The pride of the Europeans who offered a window to western knowledge and ideas was juxtaposed against the pomposity of the Japanese who, with their elaborate rituals, were fiercely resisting contamination while courting exposure to Western ways.

There were several elements that made this a contextually rich and absorbing read. There was the quaint medical “academy” where Dr Marinus practiced medicine and trained his four Japanese male students and Ms Aibagawa, a Japanese midwife (de Zoet’s love interest). There was the gothic House of Sisters, ostensibly a nunnery, in the Mount Shiranui Shrine, where, unbeknownst to the world, the kidnapped Aibagawa and the sisters were brainwashed and drugged into participating in an arcane Shinto ritual for self-serving monks and the evil Lord Abbot Enomoto. There was a samurai rescue to save Aibagawa. There was the beauty of rural Japan which Mitchell painted in lyrical strokes (e.g., the charming episode where de Zoet was digging manure into Dr Marinus' beetroot plots).

My instincts were right. This turned out to be an ambitious, intelligent and emotionally engaging story. Its magnificence is akin to a Japanese autumn where “the autumn sun is an incandescent marigold”.
(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 04, 2011 Audrey rated it 5 of 5 stars

David Mitchell makes a worthy entry into the literature of clerks with The Thousand Autumns. I've puzzled before about why clerks make such good protagonists. I think now it's because they witness misdeeds petty and grave in the course of their duties. Everyone else considers them too powerless or worn down to do anything or doesn't consider them at all because they're invisible. And then, they record accounts and aren't we all keeping accounts in our lives, hopefully of something higher and mor...more

11 likes · like · see review

Apr 20, 2010 Frank rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A nice and entertaining novel. To me it feels more like literary entertainment than a serious masterpiece; maybe I already had that feeling with Cloud Atlas; but there's nothing wrong with solid entertainment.

Mitchell's talent seems to me narrative rather than stylistic. Managing narrative tension, that's where his genius lies. I wonder if he's ever studied any of the Hollywood screen writing guides, because his novel meets all the requirements of the standard suspenseful Hollywood film. There's...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jan 14, 2011 Paula rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels-and-stories

In many ways, this is a conventional historical novel with a lot of narrative push. It's hard to put down, a quality that generally puts me on guard. The story proceeds in linear fashion, after a brief introduction to Orito the midwife, with the arrival in 1799 of clerk Jacob de Zoet at Dejima, a Dutch East Indies Company trading outpost on an island in Nagasaki harbor. The novel ends with the death of Jacob de Zoet, approximately 40 years later, and approximately 20 years after his return to th...more In many ways, this is a conventional historical novel with a lot of narrative push. It's hard to put down, a quality that generally puts me on guard. The story proceeds in linear fashion, after a brief introduction to Orito the midwife, with the arrival in 1799 of clerk Jacob de Zoet at Dejima, a Dutch East Indies Company trading outpost on an island in Nagasaki harbor. The novel ends with the death of Jacob de Zoet, approximately 40 years later, and approximately 20 years after his return to the Netherlands. The novel is fairly static in its location as well. Except at the end (and this section is brief), all events take place in Dejima, on board ship just offshore, nearby in Nagasaki proper or in or near Mount Shiranui Shrine. Although the third person narration shifts, all points of view belong to the same story, primarily that of Jacob de Zoet (this is also a story about European colonialism at the turn of the 19th century, as well as the story of Japan of the same epoch). Certainly, it's a meditation on power, hierarchical social and economic structures, and the foolish & dangerous human tendency to seek immortality "by any means necessary." The game of go played between Magistrate Shiroyama and Lord Abbot Enomoto is never-ending. Like with the affairs of men (& I use "men" here advisedly), there is always another move to be made, until the game ends, or is abandoned. Morality plays little to no part in this. Integrity & courage are rare qualities of character, only allowed for in special circumstances for most men, yet, when they do occur, they make art as beautiful as the white moth landing on a black pebble on the go board.
Although conventional in its structure, the novel is full of Mitchell's signature touches. The story is set in Japan after all. There is a tale of seafaring colonialism. There is a bizarre & bloody pseudo-mystical cult, reminiscent of, although not quite as graphically portrayed as, the Yakuza criminal gangs in number9dream who commit murder by bowling ball & sell body parts extracted from unwilling donors. Or the cult follower of His Serendipity featured in Ghostwritten who bombed the Tokyo subway with sarin gas in 1995, an acolyte inculcated with belief in an alpha-quotient.
My biggest disappointment with this novel was Mitchell's decision not to fully develop the one prominent female character, the midwife Orito. She must be seen as a very compelling woman, because at least three men are either in love with her or obsessed with her in some way [de Zoet, Ogawa & Enomoto]. Although some page space is devoted to her point of view, the novel still doesn't give us enough about her. If we were only to see her through the eyes of the men who are in love/fascination with her, then the novel wouldn't need to shift to her point of view at all. But since it does, we need to know more. The characters of Ogawa Uzaemon and, toward the end of the novel, Magistrate Shiroyama also beg to be better developed. However, their stories could be told elsewhere, perhaps in a prequel to this novel. But Orito is destined for this novel alone and it should be more hers than it is. In order to pay more attention to the three main Japanese characters, I would have skipped, or at least spent less time with, the English Captain Penhaligon with his ever worsening and much described gout. But it's Mitchell's novel, so he gets to choose, and for the most part, he chooses well.

(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Nov 17, 2010 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

David Mitchell's forte is the creation of full-formed worlds with numerous living, breathing characters, all written in beautiful, engaging prose.

I didn't think the subject matter of this novel would interest me at all (a trading post? a naval battle? not for me) but I was happy to live in this world with these characters while I was reading it. The plot is intricate but not cumbersome; details have meaning.

As in Cloud Atlas, there are recurring phrases and images that echo poetically throughou...more

10 likes · like · see review

Sep 20, 2010 Shane rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked this book as I am currently writing a novel about the VOC (Dutch East India Company) set in the same time period, albeit in Ceylon, so my preference is partial to this rather obscure subject matter.

That said, the novel is very well researched on trading, political, social, and cultural relationships within and between Japan and Holland at the dawn of the nineteenth century. In the story of Jacob de Zoet—a clerk who comes out east to earn his fortune so that he can return in five years t...more I picked this book as I am currently writing a novel about the VOC (Dutch East India Company) set in the same time period, albeit in Ceylon, so my preference is partial to this rather obscure subject matter.

That said, the novel is very well researched on trading, political, social, and cultural relationships within and between Japan and Holland at the dawn of the nineteenth century. In the story of Jacob de Zoet—a clerk who comes out east to earn his fortune so that he can return in five years to marry his bride-to-be in Holland—and Orito Aibagawa—a disfigured Japanese midwife—we realize the schism that eternally separates the West from the East. In Japan, the Westerner is always the foreigner; and even though he may takes wives, father children, learn the language, and contribute to the country’s education, economy and security, he will never be permitted out of his “foreigners only” zone and into the intimate secrets of the host country. Japan looks after its own; even justice to Japanese wrongdoers is meted out by the Japanese, in their own peculiar way.

There are three related stories in this narrative: (1) the arrival of Jacob and his boss Vorstenbosch to clean up the tiny Dutch trading post of Dejima on the shores of Nagasaki; a place steeped in corruption and failing finances, reflective of the larger VOC at the time (2) The story of Orito who is gifted to a temple in the mountains where, unknown to the rest of the world, the most heinous crimes against humanity are being committed and (3) the arrival of the British on the heels of the collapsing Dutch empire. Through these events, Jacob matures to lose his idealism and accept his fate that the best laid plans notwithstanding, life happens.

Despite the elegant prose and detailed descriptions that bring this period vividly to life (check out the opening paragraph of chapter 39 – one of the best prose poems I have read and a fantastic description of Nagasaki), I found several shortcomings in the book. Being a historical novel, the narrative is in the present tense. I found the constant italicised interior monologues going on in the heads of the various characters to be distracting and a rather poor device to provide depth of perspective. The author is also challenged in dealing with three languages – Japanese, Dutch and English – in English. This could have been managed better if he had not lapsed into wordplay in scenes where the Japanese are shown to be struggling to find the right “Dutch” words, but the examples provided are English alliterations: “lewdness” for “rudeness”, “whore’s helper” for “horse helper”, “vocation” for “vacation” and so on. There were just too many characters, and after awhile, I gave up trying to remember names; some names, particularly of the multitude of interpreters, slaves and samurai did not have to be mentioned. The research was overdone and pretentious in places, where copious quantities of scientific and medical theory of the day were discussed. And yet, a Tamil slave is supposed to be talking in Ceylonese—which is a nationality, not a language! That said, all the side stories of the Dutchmen of Dejima that come out in various parts of the narrative help to illustrate a Western world pre-occupied with conquest, profit, cheating, stealing, lining one’s own pockets and dying over acquisition. The Japanese are no better, for the magistrate ruminates that “Japan was once ruled by nobility but is now ruled by deception, greed, corruption and lust.”

Humour lies under the surface of many of the situations, and when mixed with the terrifying revelations that occur from time to time, is a compulsive “must-continue-reading” formula.

I am indebted to the author for tackling this obscure subject in this remote corner of the world, and for paving the way for contemporary literature on the VOC during its sunset years. Now I don’t feel so alone in going back to write my novel.

(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 08, 2010 ICPL Staff Picks added it

Shelves: fiction, john, staff-picks-blog

Showing a pre-publication copy (thanks, Jason!) to a friend, I surprised myself a little by saying “Greatest living author.” My wife is fond of pointing out how fatuous such pronouncements are (thanks, Mary!), but I maintain they’re for the sake of discussion, not objectively verifiable claims.

David Mitchell, 41, has only written five novels, but they show enormous range, from the astonishing metafictional fireworks of Cloud Atlas, to Black Swan Green, his character-driven, semi-autobiographical...more

3 likes · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
interrupted dialogue	7	147	Jun 17, 2013 06:31pm
The Filipino Group: [Buddy Reading] The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (Angus, Bennard, Mae, Monique). Start Date: September 24	89	56	Oct 08, 2012 08:20am
David Mitchell talks about his new book	2	200	May 20, 2012 03:38am
Goodreads Librari...: ISBN 9780812976366	5	157	May 07, 2012 06:02am
Books I Want To T...: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet	1	12	Feb 14, 2011 04:14pm

combine
Other Editions (41)

More editions...

Genres

Historical Fiction

520 users

Cultural > Japan

182 users

Book Club

75 users

Literature

60 users

Literary Fiction

52 users

Contemporary

49 users

Novels

47 users

Cultural > Asia

44 users

European Literature > British Literature

34 users

Adult Fiction

23 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

Parrot and Olivier in America
by Peter Carey
C
by Tom McCarthy
The Long Song
by Andrea Levy
The Garden of Evening Mists
by Tan Twan Eng
In a Strange Room
by Damon Galgut

About David Mitchell

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

David Mitchell was born in Southport, Merseyside, in England, raised in Malvern, Worcestershire, and educated at the University of Kent. He received a degree in English and American Literature, followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature.

He lived for a year in Sicily, then...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

David Mitchell was born in Southport, Merseyside, in England, raised in Malvern, Worcestershire, and educated at the University of Kent. He received a degree in English and American Literature, followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature.

He lived for a year in Sicily, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England. After another stint in Japan, he currently lives in Ireland with his wife Keiko and their two children.

In an essay for Random House, Mitchell wrote:

"I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but until I came to Japan to live in 1994 I was too easily distracted to do much about it. I would probably have become a writer wherever I lived, but would I have become the same writer if I'd spent the last 6 years in London, or Cape Town, or Moose Jaw, on an oil rig or in the circus? This is my answer to myself."

Mitchell's first novel, Ghostwritten (1999), moves around the globe, from Okinawa to Mongolia to pre-Millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. The novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.

His two subsequent novels, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2003, he was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. In 2007, Mitchell was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.

Mitchell's American editor at Random House is novelist David Ebershoff. He lists John Banville, Muriel Spark, Haruki Murakami, Paul Auster, Don DeLillo, Russell Hoban, Italo Calvino, Peter Carey, George Orwell, Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges, Richard Wright, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Ursula K. Le Guin among his many literary influences.(less)

More about David Mitchell...

Books by David Mitchell

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Thousand Autu...

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Thousand Autumns of Ja...

“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love.” — 86 people liked it

“Gulls wheel through spokes of sunlight over gracious roofs and dowdy thatch, snatching entrails at the marketplace and escaping over cloistered gardens, spike topped walls and treble-bolted doors. Gulls alight on whitewashed gables, creaking pagodas and dung-ripe stables; circle over towers and cavernous bells and over hidden squares where urns of urine sit by covered wells, watched by mule-drivers, mules and wolf-snouted dogs, ignored by hunch-backed makers of clogs; gather speed up the stoned-in Nakashima River and fly beneath the arches of its bridges, glimpsed form kitchen doors, watched by farmers walking high, stony ridges. Gulls fly through clouds of steam from laundries' vats; over kites unthreading corpses of cats; over scholars glimpsing truth in fragile patterns; over bath-house adulterers, heartbroken slatterns; fishwives dismembering lobsters and crabs; their husbands gutting mackerel on slabs; woodcutters' sons sharpening axes; candle-makers, rolling waxes; flint-eyed officials milking taxes; etiolated lacquerers; mottle-skinned dyers; imprecise soothsayers; unblinking liars; weavers of mats; cutters of rushes; ink-lipped calligraphers dipping brushes; booksellers ruined by unsold books; ladies-in-waiting; tasters; dressers; filching page-boys; runny-nosed cooks; sunless attic nooks where seamstresses prick calloused fingers; limping malingerers; swineherds; swindlers; lip-chewed debtors rich in excuses; heard-it-all creditors tightening nooses; prisoners haunted by happier lives and ageing rakes by other men's wives; skeletal tutors goaded to fits; firemen-turned-looters when occasion permits; tongue-tied witnesses; purchased judges; mothers-in-law nurturing briars and grudges; apothecaries grinding powders with mortars; palanquins carrying not-yet-wed daughters; silent nuns; nine-year-old whores; the once-were-beautiful gnawed by sores; statues of Jizo anointed with posies; syphilitics sneezing through rotted-off noses; potters; barbers; hawkers of oil; tanners; cutlers; carters of night-soil; gate-keepers; bee-keepers; blacksmiths and drapers; torturers; wet-nurses; perjurers; cut-purses; the newborn; the growing; the strong-willed and pliant; the ailing; the dying; the weak and defiant; over the roof of a painter withdrawn first from the world, then his family, and down into a masterpiece that has, in the end, withdrawn from its creator; and around again, where their flight began, over the balcony of the Room of Last Chrysanthemum, where a puddle from last night's rain is evaporating; a puddle in which Magistrate Shiroyama observes the blurred reflections of gulls wheeling through spokes of sunlight. This world, he thinks, contains just one masterpiece, and that is itself.” — 46 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
avg rating	preview: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet Goodreads rating: 3.99 (20230 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7141642-the-thousand-autumns-of-jacob-de-zoet?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320540908l/7141642.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7141642-the-thousand-autumns-of-jacob-de-zoet?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell[/url]

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website