I quite enjoyed Cloud Atlas when I read it a few years ago, and I had been meaning to check out another of David Mitchell's novels. I'm glad that I've finally done so, and I'll certainly be going back for more.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is almost a straight historical novel. The action occurs in Dejima — a tiny port near Nagasaki, Japan — starting in 1799. It is a star-crossed love story, centered on the titular de Zoet (a Dutch clerk trying to make his fortune in trade with the Japanese) and Miss Aibagawa (the unmarried midwife he falls in love with). The viewpoint shifts from chapter to chapter, and the first clue to the viewpoint is the style of the date in the chapter heading (this took me a long time to figure out).

On a microscopic level, Mitchell succeeds at creating a "historical" dialogue style that feels old but isn't hard to read, with separate styles for Japanese speaking Dutch and vice versa, as well as Dutch speaking English and vice versa. On a more macro scale, the novel dips slightly into speculative fiction territory with some action revolving around an abbot who may be six hundred years old, but the setting and the primary characters are the focus, so it can easily be read as straight historical fiction. The main story arc is satisfying, though many questions remain about the abbot. I have heard that Mitchell may be planning to expand this novel into a trilogy, which would be welcomed.