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The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

by David Mitchell

4.01 · rating details · 9,262 ratings · 2,294 reviews

In 2007, Time magazine named him one of the most influential novelists in the world. He has twice been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. The New York Times Book Review called him simply “a genius.” Now David Mitchell lends fresh credence to The Guardian’s claim that “each of his books seems entirely different from that which preceded it.” The Thousand Autumns of Jacob...more

Hardcover, 496 pages

Published June 29th 2010 by Random House Publishing Group (first published January 1st 2010)

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Jun 14, 2010

tim rated it

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 ...more

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Jul 13, 2010

Newengland rated it

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 secreti...moreRemember 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)

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Jun 01, 2010

Ken-ichi rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: japan, snoot

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

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Dec 04, 2011

Whitaker rated it

· 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...more

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Jan 19, 2011

Sue rated it

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 al...more

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Aug 04, 2011

Steve rated it

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 ...moreI 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.
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Aug 04, 2011

Audrey rated it

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

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Apr 20, 2010

Frank rated it

· 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 f...more

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Jan 14, 2011

Paula rated it

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 t...moreIn 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.

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Jan 31, 2011

John rated it

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:

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 ...more

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Nov 17, 2010

Teresa rated it

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...more

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Sep 20, 2010

Shane rated it

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 ...moreI 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.

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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-aut...more

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Jul 26, 2010

Sandybanks rated it

Recommends it for: anyone who loves good writing

Shelves: 2010, ebook, long-ago-and-never-was, nippon, 5-star-reads

Dejima, 1799. The Napoleonic Wars are raging in Europe, changing political loyalties seemingly overnight. The venerable VOC is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Dutch East Indies is about to fall into British hands. Japan has been isolated from the world for more than a hundred years.

This book seems like a conventional historical fiction at first --- the premise sounds similar to An Insular Possession. And hasn’t Japan been done to death with Shogun and Memoirs of a Geisha? But r...more

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Nov 27, 2011

Andy rated it

· review of another edition

This just reaffirms my love for David Mitchell. This novel was not what I expected, although I wasn't sure what to expect to begin with, within the milieu of an East India Trading Co. clerk on a tiny island on the shore of Nagasaki, in 1799. Even outside of his time living in Japan, this had to be extensively researched, and Mitchell continues his habit of including Easter eggs for those who have read his other novels with the appearance of a younger version of one of the characters from a cha...more

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Jun 13, 2011

Woodge rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

I've been doing a lot of genre reading lately; lots of fantasy, the occasional crime story -- and a non-fiction title here and there. With this novel I got back into a big, meaty, literate tale. You know, high-brow stuff. I'd almost forgotten how captivating that can be and this one did captivate. This story is about a Dutchman, Jacob de Zoet, who travels to a small island called Dejima located across a small bridge outside of Nagasaki in Japan. The year is 1799 and the Japanese do not allow f...more

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Jun 20, 2010

Bettie rated it

Shelves: published-2010, summer-2010, dutch-root, far-east, women, fraudio, period-piece, sciences, slaves, medical-eew, poison, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, teh-brillianz, revenge, spies, philosophy, historical-fiction, adventure, epic-proportions

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Sep 05, 2011

Kelly rated it

Shelves: modern-fiction

"A Dutch trader walks into a bar..."

That's not how the book begins, but it is written in present tense, just like a joke or a teenager's anecdote ("And then Becky goes 'Whatever.'")

Perhaps the tense is to give a sense of immediacy, but I just found it irksome, and it further disconnected me from a story I found difficult to enjoy.

Cloud Atlas is a favorite of mine, and maybe 18th century Dutch trading just isn't my thing. Usually, though, I'm thri...more

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Aug 03, 2010

Michael rated it

Shelves: 2010, generalfiction

By far the best novel I've read this year. Nobody writes like David Mitchell. I'm rubbish at talking about complex books like this, so go read all the glowing reviews from Entertainment Weekly to the New York Times Book Review. I just want to add that there is a lot to like here for a genre reader. Imagine the plot of a potboiler thriller executed in the most precise and delicate language. Highly recommended.

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May 31, 2011

Joanna rated it

· review of another edition

There is so much to talk about with regard to this book. It is a wonderful and egaging read with elements for everyone - love, adventure, history, language, violence.... What particularly caught my attention was the description of how medical knowledge was transferred at the turn of the 18th century. Translators were relied on to develop a language to talk about new concepts for (in this example) the Japanese and the learned Dutch doctor. They really had so much power! It is evident in their eff...more

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Feb 16, 2011

Jan rated it

Shelves: historical-fiction

This is a book that I was longing to read, as all the reviews were so ecstatic.

Yes, indeed. It is wonderful and I understand the ecstatic reviews. This is literary fiction at its best. The prose is lyrical and breathtaking. The story is a very unusual and fascinating story that brings together elements of unrequited love, political chicanery, ethics, the collision of cultures, and the cost of imperialism. Those are just a few of the themes that make this book complex and very re...more

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Nov 01, 2011

Abby rated it

Shelves: fiction, lter, british, japan

I finished this book weeks ago but have been uncharacteristically disinclined to tackle the review for fear of lacking the skill to adequately describe it without simply stringing together a list of admiring adjectives. Epic, engrossing, suspenseful, moving, enlightening, exciting, superb, the best book I've read in years....I could go on. This is one of those rare books that we passionate readers hope for every time we crack a book but that comes along only too rarely.[return][return]Who knew t...more

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Mar 18, 2011

Mary-Beth rated it

· review of another edition

Culture clash

In most of his previous books, Mitchell has turned the old architectural maxim that form follows function on its head; he has written novels that have fascinating characters and plot wrapped up into stylized, post-modern structures (vis a vis "Cloud Atlas," "Ghostwritten," and "Number9Dream"). This was less true in "Black Swan Green," an evocative bildungsroman and semi-autobiography, and now in "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet,"...more

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Aug 22, 2010

Bookmarks Magazine rated it

Shelves: sept-oct-2010

Despite some complaints of theatrical plot twists, unwieldy exposition, and weak characters, most critics enjoyed Mitchell's latest novel, a fairly conventional page-turner that represents quite a detour from his earlier adventures in style and form. Once the action-packed plot hits its stride, Mitchell's sizzling prose and keen eye for detail plunge readers into the fascinating world of feudal Japan. However, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet surpasses the typical historical thriller throug...more

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Feb 03, 2012

Mary rated it

Chapter one gets us off to a dramatic start with a Japanese midwife in late 18th c. Japan accomplishing a concubine's difficult delivery, helped along by her knowledge of European obstetrics. This chapter pulled me in, but the next hundred pages or so defaulted to life in the Dutch East India Company outpost of Dejima, near Nagasaki. More difficult names than a Russian novel, but I have plenty of them under my belt and know that if one perseveres the cast becomes clear. Besides, I had hopes o...moreChapter one gets us off to a dramatic start with a Japanese midwife in late 18th c. Japan accomplishing a concubine's difficult delivery, helped along by her knowledge of European obstetrics. This chapter pulled me in, but the next hundred pages or so defaulted to life in the Dutch East India Company outpost of Dejima, near Nagasaki. More difficult names than a Russian novel, but I have plenty of them under my belt and know that if one perseveres the cast becomes clear. Besides, I had hopes of getting back to the midwife's story. All the complicated Dutchmen were by turns noble, repulsive, mercenary (mostly that); lots of indistinguishable Japanese arrived on the scene, and along about page 160, somebody badly betrayed somebody's trust, but this didn't engage me because I had by then lost all ability to tell one Dutchman from another. This is the slowest book to get into since Anna Karenina. Why did I keep going? Well, Mitchell creates intricate worlds, like Cornell boxes, weird cities. Keeps you turning the pages, dutifully at first. WAIT, the midwife story is back!! Also, l enjoy this writer's relationship to "reality." Despite its exotic locale, things happen rather as they do in life, randomly, whole continents seems to sink between chapters and you have to wait for a character to "remember" how that cliff hanger Mitchell set up turned out. We get to a moment of potential drama and the threat vaporizes or, conversely, heads roll through a bucolic moment. Just like life. I loved that effect. Or he would shoot forward twenty years and footnote how some serious encounter played out/ played down. Way interesting. I also thought the historical part of this historical fiction was beautifully handled, with a kind of similitude of 18th century life and speech. No cumbersome groaning machinery of research; all those artifacts of medicine, commerce, naval engagement, and --let's not forget--Japanese culture are assimilated into a hospitable read. The Jacob de Zoet of the title is a good man in a bad mess; the midwife, Orito, is a brave and tough woman. At one point she is abducted into a cult that made me think of The Handmaid's Tale, where she perseveres in doing good against the odds. Jacob and Orita keep trying to get to each other without losing their integrity or their skins, and, just like life, miss the moments they deserve. If you can be very Zen and love the chaos of each moment without caring much how you got here or who these people are, you'll like this better than Shogun.(less)

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Feb 03, 2012

Kris rated it

I read the book in essentially one sitting, a New York to Beijing flight, with connection. A strange experience, the structure seems much clearer when you're finished, and you really feel like you're holding the whole of it in your head when you're done. Jacob's character was one of the most compelling I had read in a while, and despite a surprisingly action-packed plot, the sense of passing time is very well created. There's also a nice running theme of futility in spite of high hopes and plent...more

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Jan 30, 2012

Clay rated it

Recommends it for: masochists

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read this book because of good reviews, I liked "The Cloud Atlas", and it was historical fiction.

In the end, it was a major disappointment, because even though David Mitchell is an undeniably skilled writer, he spends just as much of his time showing off his chops as telling the story. And just to make sure we know this is "literature", he (or an editor with his approval) includes some study questions at the end of the book.

The plot revolves around J...more

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Jan 30, 2012

Claire rated it

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Shelves: from-library

You are probably familiar with those *masterpieces* of modern literature that are pretty unreadable (VS Naipaul I'm looking straight at you) - the intimation is that it is YOUR fault NOT that of the masterpiece. Well, I'm happy to report that David Mitchell's work, whilst containing literary allusions, beautiful prose and depth of meaning, is definitely extremely readable and probably therefore doesn't count as literature according to some tenets. Indeed I can picture Naipaul sneering about Mi...more

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Jan 17, 2012

Janet rated it

First a thank you to my nephew who purchased this book for me for Christmas. I'm not really a fan of historical fiction, so was a little worried that I'd end up telling him it wasn't for me. Then the book turned out to be pretty amazing.

Thousand Autumns is a remarkable tale of the Dutch/Japanese trading partnership, centered in Nagasaki, in the early 1800s. Jacob, an accountant, is sent there to help unravel the Dutch company's books, which as we say, "have been cooked" for...more

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Jan 06, 2012

Sandy rated it

David Mitchell is one of the most thorough researchers in historical fiction and this story of a young man who sails to Japan to work for the Dutch East India Trading Company reflects his uncanny knack for weaving a wonderful tale while teaching you about a part of history that I, for one, knew next to nothing about.

The opening chapter grips you by the throat as it describes a difficult birth that is watched over by an uncommon "midwife"; a single woman who has apprenticed ...more

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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, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature.

He lived f...moreLibrarian 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, studying for 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)

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“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.” — 17 people liked it

“We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love.” — 15 people liked it

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