The book we have chosen is:
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.
Click here to see Amazon's pricing. Goodreads.com's user ratings give this one 4.03 stars out of 5-- an excellent user rating based on over 7,000 members. It was also recommended by IndieBound.
The following is a review from Library Journal, published in April of 2010:
"It is a rare novel that's so captivating that the reader feels transported through time and fully immersed in an unfamiliar culture and place, and this is such a novel. Mitchell, a Man Booker Prize finalist for Cloud Atlas, returns with a story set at the turn of the 18th century around Dejima, an artificial island located in Nagasaki Bay and used as a trade outpost by the Dutch East Indies Company. A small group of mostly Dutch merchants lives on Dejima under the watchful eye of Japanese guards, government officials, and translators. Clerk Jacob de Zoet comes to Dejima for a period of five years to make his fortune and return to marry his wealthy fiancee in Holland. An honest man, Jacob intends to put the company's financial records in order and root out corruption, but after meeting midwife Orito Aibagawa, he becomes entangled in events far more sinister than forged ledgers. VERDICT This painstakingly researched and original novel is hard to pin to any one genre, for it is a historical novel and cultural study with plenty of intrigue and mystery mixed in. It is intelligent and utterly readable at the same time. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/10.]--Shaunna Hunter, Hampden-Sydney Coll. Lib., VA"
Source Citation
Hunter, Shaunna. "Mitchell, David. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet."
Library Journal 15 Apr. 2010: 75+. Academic OneFile. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.
Library Journal 15 Apr. 2010: 75+. Academic OneFile. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.
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