The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet cover art

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Longlisted for the Booker Prize

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

By: David Mitchell
Narrated by: Andrew Wincott, Jemma Redgrave
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £19.83

Buy Now for £19.83

About this listen

 **Pre-order UTOPIA AVENUE, the spectacular new novel from David Mitchell.**


The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller, from the author of CLOUD ATLAS and THE BONE CLOCKS.

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010

Be transported to 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 two cultures converge. In a tale of integrity and corruption, passion and power, the key is control - of riches and minds, and over death itself.

(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd©2010 David Mitchell Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Heartfelt Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

Spectacularly accomplished and thrillingly suspenseful . . . it brims with rich, involving and affecting humanity
An achingly romantic story of forbidden love . . . Mitchell's incredible prose is on stunning display . . . [it] confirms Mitchell as one of the more fascinating and fearless writers alive (Dave Eggers)
That rare thing - a novel which actually deserves the accolade "tour de force" (Kamila Shamsie, Books of the Year)
Genres merge and interact like the shimmering colours of a kaleidoscope . . . one story contains multiplicities, woven together with golden thread . . . Dive in and lose yourself in a world of incredible scope, originality and imaginative brilliance (Katy Guest)
Compared with almost everything being written now, it is vertiginously ambitious - and brilliant . . . He can write as thrillingly about large-scale events as he can about the tiny details of the private world . . . turned one way this novel is a thriller with a glittering seam of a love story running through it (or is it the other way round?); turned another, it is a sumptuous historical novel on the collision of cultures caught at a particular crossroads of history (Neel Mukherjee)
Stunning (Books of the Year)
As compelling as it is strange, the novel is testament to the originality of Mitchell's vision and his great craftiness as a storyteller
A heady potion of betrayal, love, superstition, power politics and murder . . . And all this in the most extraordinary prose
However densely charted and richly sketched, this sumptuous imbroglio never drags . . . Mitchell flexes his prose virtuosity. More than before, those muscles do the heart's work
Moving, thoughtful and unexpectedly funny (Books of the Year)
Hugely enjoyable . . . It cracks along, holding us in suspense from the beginning
Masterpieces make their own rules, and this book is definitely one of them
David Mitchell is back with a bang . . . superb
Ambitious and fascinating . . . Comparisons to Tolstoy are inevitable, and right on the money
A pitch-perfect masterclass in the art, and magic, of narrative (Books of the Year)
A marvel - entirely original among contemporary British novels, revealing its author as, surely, the most impressive fictional mind of his generation
A formidable marvel
Extraordinarily entertaining and well-realised (A. S. Byatt)
For a tour de force, it's surprisingly nimble, emotionally complex and simply unforgettable (Stuart Kelly)
Almost every sentence shimmers with precise, opaque and brilliantly realised writing . . . An historical novel on a deliberately grand scale, it never loses its quiet intimacy
The details are fascinating and the prose beautiful . . . simply magnificent
Sharp, hilarious, exhilarating stuff. Utterly enjoyable
All stars
Most relevant
This was an impactfull story, it left me in awe and melancholic about life in general. Beautifully written. Bringing forward a historically accurate time, now passed. A Jewel on the shelf.

A Beautiful Moving Piece of Historic Art

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Loved this book. Compelling narrative and great characterisation. Also enjoyed the historical aspect.

Gripping and historically informative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully vivid descriptions of people and places. Mitchell really builds up a detailed picture of each situation yet it never feels laboured. The story story starts off settled in place and focuses on a small cast of characters. However as it develops the story moves more quickly. The twists, turns and side plots are unpredictable and engrossing. Ultimately this is a profoundly enjoyable and moving story. One which will linger with this listener a long time.

Vivid detail and a man's story that twists and turns unpredictably

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narrator’s telling was exquisite, a sea of voices, each woven into this story with feeling and care.

Wonderful story, told in wonderful words

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
at times gripping at other times a fantastic insight into Dutch and Japanese history.

an excellent fantastical realism.

Beautiful words tell a fantastic story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews