The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Part of the What's in a name Challenge and BookCrossing.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
By: David Mitchell

Outer back cover: In your hands is a place like no other: a tiny, man-made island in the bay of Nagasaki, for two hundred years the sole gateway between Japan and the West. Here, in the dying days of the 18th century, a young Dutch clerk arrives to make his fortune. Instead he loses his heart.
Step onto the streets of Dejima and mingle with scheming traders, spies, interpreters, servants and concubines as tow cultures converge. In a tale of integrity and corruption, passion and power, the key is control - of riches and minds, and over death itself.

This book was rather boring. I really struggled at the start of it and just wanted to give up, there was just too much detail, I lost interest in what I was reading and had to reread a lot because my mind just started wandering.

I liked part 2 of the book, but that doesn't start until page 200 and lasts until page 365 of 546. That was the only part of the book I really enjoyed reading and the only pages where I had trouble putting the book down because it was so exciting. I would have loved a book just about the Mount Shiranui Shrine.

I guess someone that's interested in history would like this book as it is historic fiction.