The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, published in 2010 as David Mitchell's fifth novel, is a long, dense historical fiction book that marks a significant departure from his previous genre of writing. Set primarily on the island of Dejima, a Dutch haven right off the coast of the Japanese city Nagasaki, the novel follows Jacob de Zoet, a young Dutch clerk who has come to make his fortune and purge the Dutch East Indies Company of corruption. Starting as pure historical fiction, the novel steadily incorporates more shadowy, mystical, and perhaps supernatural elements until, as if he couldn't resist, Mitchell has turned late 18th century Japan into the battleground between dark cultic forces and the ideals of justice.
According to an interview with Mitchell on NPR, the inspiration for the book came from a backpacking trip across Japan, when he stumbled across the Dejima museum and learned of its fascinating trading history. The island, functioning as a crossroads of cultures between the East and the West, has special significance for the British author, whose wife is Japanese. As such, Mitchell went to extreme efforts to paint the historical setting exactly as it might have been, down to every accurate detail. The result is a remarkable piece of art that seems to incorporate an entire lush, vibrant world within its pages, a world that is familiar yet strange.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet divided critics, many of whom praised it as masterful, while others were less enthusiastic in their praise. Regardless, it did quite well in the field of literary recognition: it was longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the 2011 Walter Scott Prize, nominated for the 2011 Locus Award, and it won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for South Asia and Europe, along with many other smaller awards.
