Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

English language

Published Jan. 8, 2011

ISBN:
978-0-340-92158-6
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4 stars (10 reviews)

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a historical fiction novel by British author David Mitchell published by Sceptre in 2010. It is set during the Dutch trading concession with Japan in the late 18th-century, during the period of Japanese history known as Sakoku.

4 editions

Could have done without the love triangle

3 stars

A Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet has been sitting on our kindle since Dave downloaded and read it during last winter's travels. I have been put off by its brick-thick-ness as I'm not a great fan of books that take ages to read. However, our last few days in Almenara allowed me lots of lazing time so I finally got stuck in. I've read David Mitchell before and liked Black Swan Green, but Thousand Autumns is a more serious novel. It does provide a fascinating glimpse into the bizarre crossover world of Dutch traders in - or at least very nearly in - 1800s Japan. The society with which these few Europeans wish to trade is closed, proud and rigidly governed, yet at the same time corrupt, misogynistic and seemingly stuck in a Medieval timewarp with regards to its technology. The reverse xenophobia of the Japanese officials being unable …

Review of 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I don't think I've read a David Mitchell book yet that I didn't love. This is in many ways a much more straightforward book than you might be used to from him, but the combination of vivid writing, humour, an incredible amount of historical research (it's set on a Dutch trading outpost in the bay of Nagasaki in 1799) makes it if anything an ever stronger read.
How he straddles the different sensibilities of the Dutch, Japanese and English through language is amazing, but of course this wouldn't count for much if it wasn't also a very emotionally captivating novel.

Review of 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It is so funny when you find the same character in two different books yet in two different registers. It is good to meet them again, it is like re-encountering an old acquaintance. This historical novel has this and that – merchants, scribers, nuns, samurais, captains, the rich, the dispossed, all so full of life, some even bigger than life. All bring to our attention issues like loyalty, honesty, corruption, fear, bravery, lust, eligion. How unthinkably big power can get to be, yet how it can be defeated when enough people are determined to fight for justice and space for love no matter what.

I found especially touching how, when the main character seemingly looses all because he refuses to be corrupted, he gains the simpathy and respect of all around him (except his bosses) all who again seemed ruthless and selfish at the beginning. May be that is why …

Review of 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It is so funny when you find the same character in two different books yet in two different registers. It is good to meet them again, it is like re-encountering an old acquaintance. This historical novel has this and that – merchants, scribers, nuns, samurais, captains, the rich, the dispossed, all so full of life, some even bigger than life. All bring to our attention issues like loyalty, honesty, corruption, fear, bravery, lust, eligion. How unthinkably big power can get to be, yet how it can be defeated when enough people are determined to fight for justice and space for love no matter what.

I found especially touching how, when the main character seemingly looses all because he refuses to be corrupted, he gains the simpathy and respect of all around him (except his bosses) all who again seemed ruthless and selfish at the beginning. May be that is why …

Review of 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

It's been a long time since I was so endeared of historical fiction as with this book. I thought it was quite outstanding, a beautiful story.

Jacob de Zoet is a Dutch clerk who comes to Japan in the last year of the 18th century, to make his fortune in five years, so that he can marry his girlfriend Anna. He is sent to Dejima on Nagasaki island along with his his boss to investigate the corruption of the local Dutch trading company. Dejima was the single place of trade between Japan and the outside world until 1854. Shocked by the amount of corruption he finds among the Dutch stationed in Dejima, Jacob falls in love with Orito, a Japanese midwife who is training with the Dutch Dr. Marinus. When Orito's father dies, she falls into the hands of the mysterious Lord Abbott Enomoto. I don't want to describe any …

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