Let's be honest, this BOW took a little longer than usual, clocking in at about one month from start to finish! While it took some time to get through (and in my defense, most of that was due to holidays and wedding planning drama), David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet was fantistic-o!
The first image is what my copy of the book looks like; the second is apparently in circulation somewhere and I totally wish it were mine!
Anyway, I don't know whether you have read any of Mitchell's other novels (including the acclaimed Number9Dream or, my favorite, Cloud Atlas), but he is a truly unique author, blending together crazy amounts of historical research with dazzling imagination in order to create complex stories that sink their teeth into the reader. Further, the stories always seem to push structural boundaries, testing the limits of narrative construction. Thousand Autumns is no exception, vividly set in 1799 Nagasaki Harbor--the farthest Dutch East Indies Company outpost and Japan's sole connection to the western world. Strangely--yet perhaps not so strangely if you're familiar with Mitchell--characters include a well-educated Japanese midwife, murderous monks, and of course De Zoet himself, an honorable Dutch clerk surrounded by cynics and thieves.
While I could go describing the book, I think Mitchell himself can do it better, and in fact has during a live blog chat with Toronto's National Post. Follow the link for a very clever and deft discussion of the novel that took place this past summer prior to the book's release.
In case you were wondering what book is keeping me company these days, its City of Veils, by Zoe Ferraris. My lovely aunt S. lent me this psychological drama, which takes place in conservative Islam and revolves around murder and mystery. It's shaping up to be quite the page-turner, and so I should have a true B.O.W. review next weekend!
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