Read what people think about The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, and write your own review.

Rated of 5

Jumping right into a Dutch trading settlement on the edge of Japan, the book mostly focuses on Jacob De Zoet, a clerk brought in to sort out corruption in the books. From his perspective, we learn about a time in history I wasn't fully aware of, and it's all quite well-researched to make it seem quite realistic.

The perspective does change from time to time, following some of the secondary characters. Unfortunately, some of this includes jumping back and forth in time, which was a bit disorienting. It took some work to follow the dates and realize the time jumps, which was a bit tedious.

Additionally, there was an awful lot of story-telling by the characters, which fits with the environment but was a little tiresome as well. I wanted to be shown things, not just told about them. The story kept up at a really good pace for most of the book, though towards the end it sort of coasted along towards the end.

Overall though, I would recommend this book, though it is a lengthy read and takes a bit of work to get through. I enjoyed it enough to pursue some of Mitchell's earlier books, which I'd only heard bits about.