The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

In David Mitchell's captivating novel, set in 1799 on Dejima, an isolated island in Nagasaki Harbor, young clerk Jacob de Zoet is determined to earn enough wealth to marry his fiancée back in Holland. His ambitions are upended when he meets Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor, prompting a complex interplay of desire, ambition, and moral dilemmas that challenge his original intentions. As Jacob navigates a world filled with deceitful merchants and natural disasters, the lines between propriety and pleasure blur, leading to consequences far beyond his expectations.