In 2007, Time magazine named him 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.” Now David Mitchell lends fresh credence to The Guardian ’s claim that “each of his books seems entirely different from that which preceded it.” The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a stunning departure for this brilliant, restless, and wildly ambitious author, a giant leap forward by even his own high standards. A bold and epic novel of a rarely visited point in history, it is a work as exquisitely rendered as it is irresistibly readable.

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.

But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, “Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?”

A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author.

大卫·米切尔是英国著名作家，欧美文学界公认的新一代小说大师。1969年生于英格兰伍斯特郡，在肯特大学主修英美文学、比较文学。曾在日本广岛担任工程系学生的英文教师八年。米切尔博采村上春树、奥斯特、卡尔维诺、博尔赫斯诸大师作品之所长，自成一派，其作波诡云谲，灵气无穷。处女作《幽灵代笔》（1999）轰动欧美文学界，荣获莱斯文学奖，入围《卫报》处女作奖决选；《九号梦》（2001）入围布克奖决选，米切尔也因此书被评为英国最佳青年小说家；《云图》（2004）荣膺英国国家图书奖最佳小说奖和理查与茱蒂读书俱乐部年度选书，同时入围布克奖、星云奖、克拉克奖决选；《绿野黑天鹅》（2006）获得美国图书馆协会最佳青少年图书和《学校图书馆报》最佳图书称号，入围科斯塔图书奖和《洛杉矶时报》图书奖；《雅各布·德佐特的一千个秋天》（2010）问鼎英联邦作家奖。米切尔小说原创性十足，为二十一世纪英语小说开启了全新的模式与风貌。2007年，以杰出的文学成就被美国《时代》杂志评为“世界100位最具影响力的人物”之一。