The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the "high-walled,
fan-shaped artificial island" that is the Japanese Empire´s single port and sole
window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest
outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison
for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of
devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and
typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has
five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his
wealthy fiancée back in Holland.
In 2007, Time magazine named David Mitchell one of the most influential
novelists in the world. He has twice been short-listed for the Man Booker
Prize. The New York Times Book Review called him simply "a genius."
