The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

By: David Mitchell

Narrated by: Jonathan Aris, Paula Wilcox

Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

A Booker finalist and Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winner, David Mitchell was called “prodigiously daring and imaginative” by Time and “a genius” by the New York Times Book Review.

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 fiancée 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?”

©2010 David Mitchell (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"It’s as difficult to put this novel down as it is to overestimate Mitchell’s virtually unparalleled mastery of dramatic construction, illuminating characterizations and insight into historical conflict and change. Comparisons to Tolstoy are inevitable, and right on the money." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"Despite the audacious scope, the focus remains intimate; each fascinating character has the opportunity to share his or her story. Everything is patched together seamlessly and interwoven with clever wordplay and enlightening historical details on feudal Japan. First-rate literary fiction and a rousing good yarn, too." ( Booklist)

“An achingly romantic story of forbidden love . . . [David] Mitchell’s incredible prose is on stunning display. . . . A novel of ideas, of longing, of good and evil and those who fall somewhere in between [that] confirms Mitchell as one of the more fascinating and fearless writers alive.” (Dave Eggers, The New York Times Book Review)

I love David Mitchell

While I did not like this book as much as I liked Cloud Atlas or Black Swann Green, I did very much like the story and the characters. I was excited to get in the car every day or go to lunch to continue listening to the story.

English accents from Japanese characters??

The story was excellent but listening to strong English accents from Japanese characters threw me off!
Japanese accents would be much preferred!

David Mitchell: You’ve Done It Again!

I read to be entertained. I enjoy getting lost in a story. What accomplishes that most effectively is a story written on many levels. The story line is, of course, the primary trance. But can be the added pleasure of history being brought alive and/or a fascination with unexpected elements. This book has both of those.
A young Dutchman goes to Japan in the late 1700s to make a career and win a young lady’s hand by doing so. The details of the business in the book and the relations with Japan were so real, I looked up the history. When I read about Japan’s trade with the Dutch and the attack of Japan by the English, I appreciated Mitchell’s creative imagination all the more. Then, when a particularly despicable character is murdered with a hidden, arcane potion I was gleefully happy with the event and the means that brought it.
This book is a fine read. Go ahead! Make space on your shelf for The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

missing jacob...

I found myself utterly absorbed in this book. i felt it moved slowly for the first 1/3, but it was still absorbing--like lying by a stream. Then all of a sudden it sped up, then slowed down again, which was unexpected but by this point I loved the characters and was glad to hear more action from them. I love Orito and wish I could be friends with her.
There are definitely parts that are...for lack of a better word...gross (explicit medical descriptions) but I didn't find them so frequent as to distract from the story. I thought the narrators did a great job, and the voices they used really helped me keep characters straight.
And now it's been a few days since I finished the story...and I miss Jacob!

Great story

Would you listen to The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet again? Why?

Yes, because the story is very compelling and there are characters and details you might have missed from a first listening.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jacob- well developed character

What about Jonathan Aris and Paula Wilcox ’s performance did you like?

Jonathan's use of voices and foreign accents was very impressive.

I melted into it...

This book was not at all what I thought it was going to be. I started listening to it on the ride home from dropping my son at college, and just couldn't get into it. I loved The Tales of the Otari, and thought it was going to be like that. I was very wrong. I did decide to give it a second try and was I glad I did. I became mesmerized by the story and really started to care about the characters.
I thought the narration was great.
It is one of those stories though, where a minor character occasionally tells or shares his or her own story which does nothing to really further the plot. In the end, it is a simple story of a truly honorable man, and scattered throughout are acts of faith, courage, and love.

Tidy and poetic

I enjoy David Mitchell. I find his stories often fit a pleasing poetic formula, and are elegantly written.

The narrator was quite good; my only complaint was the odd pronunciation of a few names.

Entertaining...

Any additional comments?

The plot was entertaining, but just a bit crazy enough to turn me off at times. I mean, so far as I can tell, nothing like the nefarious activities that go on at the temple actually happened. Or if they did, perhaps that could be made a bit clearer so I could accept it more easily. The reading was strong early on, but it did get annoying that the Japanese characters were given English, Irish, etc., accents in the chapters with only Japanese characters.

The rich detail of much of the story was captivating and definitely made this a very enjoyable read. It also means that while much of thos book is pretty forgettable, many specific aspects of it definitely stick with me.

Left you wanting more

Beautiful narration. The storyline left many details unexamined, but gave great insight to Western trading in Japan.

Good Historical Fiction

The story begins in 1799 at the Dutch East Indies Company trading post Dejima, in the harbor of Nagasaki, Japan. The Japanese are't allowed to travel outside of Japan, and very few Europeans are tolerated on Japanese soil for fear the Europeans might 'contaminate' Japan with their culture and beliefs. The book is divided in three parts, in the first, we are introduced to a huge cast of characters, too many to remember in fact, who inhabit Dejima, from the sailors and officers to the surgeon Dr Mariner, and the ubiquitous Japanese interpreters (who sometimes double as spies) and of course, our hero, Jacob de Zoet. Although Jacob has promised a young woman back home in Holland that he will return as a rich man and marry her, our young man falls hopelessly in love with a young female student of doctor Mariner's, Orito, a midwife who's appearance is marred by a burn scar which covers one half of her face. Suddenly, shortly after her father dies, Orito is taken away to a mysterious abbey far away in the mountains, and things take a fascinating turn.

Parts of this book were tremendously enjoyable, with bits of prose which shone like little jewels. The second part of the story held me captive throughout. Indeed, taken in separate parts, one could say that Mitchell created a most convincing picture, rich with detail, intriguing characters and mysterious motivations. But taken as a whole, the novel didn't quite hang together properly. More editing would probably have been a good idea for starters, but the third part of the novel told me that the author never quite found his focal point, other than Jacob de Zoet who in the end failed to hold one's interest for long. All the same, this is a very well written historical novel which is well worth discovering. I would say that the audio version is definitely the way to go with this novel, since there are characters with many different accents which the narrator interprets very well, and which helps to understand what could otherwise be a confusing narrative.