My first 'big' read of the year, great in length and in impact. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet
Set on the Japanese island of Dejima in Nagasaki bay and beginning in 1799, it is centered on the Dutch trading post there, the tiny foreign presence in an otherwise closed and isolated society. The book's hero is the eponymous Jacob, a clerk in the Dutch East India Company, a young man of good heart and sharp intelligence, one whose integrity and courage stand out in a story of power-play, intrigue, murder and love.
It's clever, intricate, opulent in its realisation and detail, and there's skillful use of rhythm in the writing with different scenes underscored by different beats and brief, haiku-like passages of description which provide momentary pause for breath. The rigid, hierarchical Japanese society is consummately covered, as is its culture and the rôle of women - the exception to the rule of subservience is embodied by the medically trained Orito who captures Jacob's heart, a story whose ending is... well, I must not say!
There's an erudite and mischievously spirited doctor, Marinus, a monkey by the name of William Pitt and a despicably villainous abbot whose ultimate fate is beautifully, ingeniously engineered. One section of the book gives more than a nod in the direction of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels, but really this is a singular achievement and one to which it's well worth devoting serious reading time. It's gone straight on my books of the year list and I can't imagine what might possibly elbow it off.
