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 foreigners within their country. But the Dutch East Indies Company is allowed to have about a dozen traders live on the small manmade island of Dejima. (There's a sketch of it early in the story.) Jacob has given himself five years to make his fortune so that he can return and win the hand of a woman back home in Holland. But things take an interesting turn after he meets a local midwife named Orito Aibagawa and he becomes somewhat besotted with her. My expectations for the story were changed completely after about 100+ pages into the story and it wouldn't be the last time. This was very well written and absorbing. It was a story I was eager to return to again and again. I'll most likely be reading more books by this author. (This would make a great book-club book.)