Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. The final chapters of the book especially the last paragraph are literary perfection. I picked this book for my inreallife book club in madison to read because id heard a lot about david mitchell and was curious to try one of his books. Connections abound with that last one, noted alex miller, jr. Discussion questions use our litlovers book club resources.
As one cynical colleague asks, who aint a gambler in the glorious orient, with his very life. It is mitchells masterpiece the richness of thousand autumns, its innumerable side. I enjoyed it and will warn the reader that it moves a bit slower than some audiobooks that i have read. With ka yoshida, mitchell translated from the japanese the internationally. Not only is the novel, set in japan at the end of the 18th century, the least. He has been nominated for the man booker prize five times and hailed as the novelist whos shown us fictions future washington post, as. Some of the descriptive writing is so breathtakingly, heart achingly adept. Unlike the former, mitchells novel of a dutch trading post on the edge of japan circa 1800 does not have to hew to specific facts about specific people.
His novels like ghostwritten and cloud atlas spill over with narrators and language, collecting storylines connected more in spirit than in fact. Its a strangely gothic, historical actionadventure romance, set on a dutch trading outpost in. This book is a kind of unusual one and its different to what normally read so an interesting one to discuss. Its pages boast enough intricate turns to invite lingering. The forest hills book group forest hills, ny meetup. After david mitchells 2004 novel, cloud atlas, nested six competing eras within each other for a genrebending fantasy, 2006s followup, black swan green, felt fairly or otherwise like a deliberate narrowing of scope. Jul 14, 2015 this book is a kind of unusual one and its different to what normally read so an interesting one to discuss. Twice shortlisted for the man booker prize, mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by time in 2007. Hes been hired to audit the companys books and clean up rampant corruption, which is a difficult task because of just how widespread and universal bribery and skimming have become.
Sep 08, 2010 join the georgetown book club for its very last meeting at the interim location before we move to book hill park. All in all, much of what i enjoyed most about cloud atlas the colorful characters and. He also answered questions on cloud atlas, his inspirations, writing style and love of languages. Jacob is a young, handsome man with high ideals, tremendous and sincere christian faith, and aspires to make something of. In the thousand autumns of jacob desoet, mitchell puts his undeniable imagination and talent to work in a more traditional work of long fiction. However, sometimes entertainment is a long road and not a short sprint. Some of the descriptive writing is so breathtakingly, heart achingly adept it cuts like a scalpel through to your heart. Now david mitchell lends fresh credence to the guardians claim that each of his books seems entirely different from that which preceded it. It is a historical novel set during the dutch trading concession with japan in the late 18th century, during the period of japanese history known as sakoku. Join the georgetown book club for its very last meeting at the interim location before we move to book hill park. David mitchell reinvents himself with each book, and its thrilling to watch. The novel, which is set in eighteenthcentury japan, was long listed for the 2010 man booker prize for fiction. Books mentioned in this topic black swan green other topics.
Its historical fiction at its finest, with detailed character work and fantastic storytelling throughout. The consequences will extend beyond jacobs worst imaginings. As a bookshop affiliate and an amazon associate, the rumpus earns a percentage from qualifying purchases. David mitchells most recent novel, published in 2010, won. A bold and epic novel of a rarely visited point in history, it is a work as exquisitely rendered as it is irresistibly readable. Jun 08, 2011 i dont consider myself a fan of historical fiction, but i guess im committed to reading the best things being written in the genre. How do you think the perspectives of each culture are portrayed, and are they given equal treatment. First, david mitchell launched his fourth count it. She slips between the bigger, taller onlookers unnoticed. How did our book club discussion of the thousand autumns.