Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet, The

Be transported to a place like no other: a tiny, man-made island in the bay of Nagasaki, for two hundred years the sole gateway between Japan and the West. Here, in the dying days of the 18th-century, a young Dutch clerk arrives to make his fortune. Instead he loses his heart. Step onto the streets of Dejima and mingle with scheming traders, spies, interpreters, servants and concubines as two cultures converge. In a tale of integrity and corruption, passion and power, the key is control - of riches and minds, and over death itself. Review: 'Compared with almost everything being written now, it is vertiginously ambitious - and brilliant' -- The Times 'Spectacularly accomplished and thrillingly suspenseful' -- Sunday Times 'Unquestionably a marvel - entirely original among contemporary British novels, revealing its author as, surely, the most impressive fictional mind of his generation' -- Observer 'A world of stories in prose that brings a lump to the throat...David Mitchell has done it again.' -- Independent on Sunday 'Arguably his finest...It will doubtless earn Mitchell his fourth Man Booker nomination and, if there's any justice, his first win.' -- Sunday Telegraph 'However densely charted and richly sketched, this sumptuous imbroglio never drags...Mitchell flexes his prose virtuosity. More than before, those muscles do the heart's work.' -- Independent 'Hugely enjoyable...the descriptions of Dejima and what life there must have been like are extraordinarily accurate' -- Literary Review 'David Mitchell is back with a bang...superb' -- Irish Independent 'A masterpiece' -- Scotsman 'For a tour de force, it's surprisingly nimble, emotionally complex and simply unforgettable.' -- Scotland on Sunday 'Ambitious and fascinating...Comparisons to Tolstoy are inevitable, and right on the money.' -- Kirkus Reviews 'Confirms Mitchell as one of the more fascinating and fearless writers alive' -- Dave Eggers, New York Times Book Review Prizes: Shortlisted for Galaxy National Book Awards: Waterstone's UK Author of the Year 2010. Author Biography: David Mitchell's first novel, GHOSTWRITTEN, was awarded the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, NUMBER9DREAM, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. In 2003, his third novel, CLOUD ATLAS, was shortlisted for six awards including the Man Booker Prize and won the British Book Awards Best Literary Fiction and South Bank Show Literature Prize. His previous novel, BLACK SWAN GREEN, was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award.