Big Books of 2026
Number9Dream

Questions About Number9Dream

by David Mitchell

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Answered Questions (2)

Are the Goatwriter pages mportant? Clever but so far just annoying interruptions in the Eiji narrative.
Cynthia Pretentious. Distracting. The book is already muddled enough and while the rest is deliberate and relevant in some way, the Goatwriter bits were to me…morePretentious. Distracting. The book is already muddled enough and while the rest is deliberate and relevant in some way, the Goatwriter bits were to me too great a departure from the storyline. Too much for one book IMO.(less)
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My partner and I have been reading David Mitchell books in tandem. We just started Number9Dream and just realized that the different editions we each have are VERY different. Like every other sentence. Some important, some not. "Finny Friends" in mine, "Goldfish Pal" in his. Sometimes just 6th floor to 9th. Entire dialogues changed. Any idea why they did this? We feel like we're reading 2 entirely different books.
Clothears There are a lot of differences between the UK and US editions of this novel (and Cloud Atlas). For example, The UK edition opening sentences are "It i…moreThere are a lot of differences between the UK and US editions of this novel (and Cloud Atlas). For example, The UK edition opening sentences are "It is a simple matter. I know your name and you knew mine, once upon a time: Eiji Miyake." The US edition begins "We are both busy people, so let's cut the small talk. You already know my name, or at least you knew it, once upon a time. Eiji Miyake."
I asked Mitchell about this once at a reading and he explained that he is constantly fiddling and rewriting his work, even 'finished' manuscripts. The UK edition was published several months before the US and that meant several months of still changing the text! The result is a slightly different rhythm to the book but it does beg the question about what is 'definitive' - which version was shortlisted for the Booker?
Mitchell answers such things in the Guardian article posted by J.L. - he asks us to view them as 2 slightly different versions of the same song. I think it is more like 2 different translations of a book but a few changes go beyond that - the timing of an event in a newsflash near the end is 60 seconds in the UK, but only 30 seconds in the US!(less)
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