The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the âhigh-walled, fan-shaped artificial islandâ 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?
My Review
This was a very interesting romantic story of forbidden love with different cultures involved which had a great sense of place. Mitchell is a beautiful writer who has done excellent research and his characters are fascinating. It had a good plot with lots of twists which created lots of suspense. I learned a lot about the early 19th century feudal Japan. I would highly recommend this book to those who read Shogun and enjoyed that one.
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?
My Review
This was a very interesting romantic story of forbidden love with different cultures involved which had a great sense of place. Mitchell is a beautiful writer who has done excellent research and his characters are fascinating. It had a good plot with lots of twists which created lots of suspense. I learned a lot about the early 19th century feudal Japan. I would highly recommend this book to those who read Shogun and enjoyed that one.
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