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 more in fear of spoiling it. The book is set in five parts, with the bulk of it happening in the years 1799 and 1800. While the first parts focus on Jacob's live in the trading post, our perspective later switches to Orito, the translator Ogawa, and even the magistrate. I thought it was a fascinating insight into the Edo period of Japan, its isolation, and the consequences for those Europeans who still sat it out in Asia, sometimes not hearing anything from home for years.

It was beautifully written, though I think it's probably not to everyone's tastes. Very descriptive. The cast is huge, and yet I found I knew something about all of them, be it the slaves and servants of the Dutch, to the intrigues amongst the translators, and the magistrate's court.

TLDR: loved the book, a lovely historical novel, would read again.