I really enjoyed reading this, but ultimately didn't think it was very good. Essentially there are two plot threads: one a reasonably straight-forward historical fiction, about a Dutchman struggling to live in a trading station in early 19th century Japan; the second involves more adventure/suspense/mystery elements, and is really far less convincing - with clichéd characters. It kinda felt to me like Mitchell lacked confidence in the first plot and so tried to ginger the book along with something a bit more uptempo, but for me it undermined the whole thing. Certainly, I felt that the second half (two thirds? not sure) didn't live up to the promise of the first part of the book. That said, I did really enjoy reading it - but any recommendation would be qualified. ( )

i liked this one a lot. set at the end of the 1700s, at an outpost of the Dutch East India Company, i was engrossed throughout, with great characters, a fine story, and of course very engaging writing, given that it's David Mitchell. ( )

What a beautiful and haunting piece of literature. I've adored Mitchell's work since his first novel, "Ghostwritten", and this is probably my favourite of his since then. It's too late in the evening for coherent thought, but yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. ( )

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The problem was that I didn't really got sucked into the story untill 75% in, at which point I wasn't that invested in the main characters. I don't think that this is entirely on the writer though, the book is beautifully​ written and the premise of the story is interesting as hell, it just failed to grip me when it should have.

edit
The second time (listening to the audiobook) this book came to life for me. Maybe I have matured as a reader a bit. This time I got sucked in, and it didn't let me out until a few pages before the end. I did thing the ending was a bit disappointing. While the book worked towards a thrilling climax, the few chapters after that felt decidedly anti-climactic. I guess there might have been a point to that cadence, but to me it felt a bit strange.
( )

Set in Nagasaki around 1790 to 1810, the novel is very rich in period and Japanese detail, with complex and deeply described characters. Jacob de Zoet is an educated man who was raised in a parsonage to be faithful and truthful. He wishes to marry a girl in his native Holland, but her father insist he join the Dutch East India Company to make his fortune before he can marry. The Japanese of the Shogunate often referred to Japan as "the land of a thousand autumns". Each character has a story, told in the omniscient third person, so the reader knows their thoughts. The main plot is driven by the abduction of a young woman midwife, Orito Aibagawa, taken to a sinister monastery overseen by a powerful abbot. Jacob develops a longing for her when she is studying with the Dutch physician on Dejima, the walled island where the Europeans are confined while they carry on business. In somewhat of an aside from Jacob's story , interpreter Ogawa, who has also longed for the midwife, fails miserably in an attempt to rescue Orito and is killed by the abbot. The novel then describes the arrival of an English frigate with news of Bonaparte's conquest of Holland, and when the Japanese magistrate, advised by de Zoet, refuses to grant the English trading rights, the captain bombards Dejima. Jacobs obsession ends after a brief conversation with Orito following the death of the abbot, and the end of the novel briefly describes Jacob's return to Holland and later life. ( )