The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet - Hardcover

Mitchell, David

4.02

64,156 ratings by Goodreads

9781410433121: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1410433129 ISBN 13: 9781410433121

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2011

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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 de Zoet is a stunning departure for this brilliant, restless, and wildly ambitious author, a giant leap forward by even his own high standards. A bold and epic novel of a rarely visited point in history, it is a work as exquisitely rendered as it is irresistibly readable.
The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the "high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island" that is the Japanese Empire's single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancee back in Holland.
But Jacob's original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city's powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob's worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, "Who ain't a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?"
A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author.

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Review:

"If any readers have doubted that David Mitchell is phenomenally talented and capable of vaulting wonders on the page, they have been heretofore silent. Mitchell is almost universally acknowledged as the real deal. His best-known book "Cloud Atlas" is one of those how-the-holy-hell-did-he-do-it? Modern classics that no doubt is -- and should be -- read by any student of contemporary fiction... ["The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet"] confirms Mitchell as one of the more fascinating and fearless writers alive."
--DAVE EGGERS, COVER OF "THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"
"By any standards, "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet "is a formidable marvel."
--"THE NEW YORKER"
."..underscores Mr. Mitchell’s mastery here not only of virtuosic literary fireworks, but also of the quieter arts of empathy and traditional storytelling."
"—The New York Times
"
"Now [Mitchell] startles us again with a rich historical romance set in feudal Japan, an epic

Book Description:

Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial and Commonwealth Writers' Prizes

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