Read the first chapter of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet
Ahead of its publication on the 13th May, read the first chapter of David Mitchell’s long-awaited new novel.
David Mitchell s novels have captivated critics and readers alike, as his Man Booker shortlistings and Richard & Judy Book of the Year award attest. Now he has written a masterpiece. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the kind of book that comes along once in a decade enthralling in its storytelling, imagination and scope.
Set at a turning point in history on a tiny island attached to mainland Japan, David Mitchell s tale of power, passion and integrity transports us to a world that is at once exotic and familiar: an extraordinary place and an era when news from abroad took months to arrive, yet when people behaved as they always do – loving, lusting and yearning, cheating, fighting and killing.
Bringing to vivid life a tectonic shift between East and West, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is dramatic, funny, heartbreaking, enlightening and thought-provoking. Reading it is an unforgettable experience.
