Description
Book Synopsis''ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANTLY INVENTIVE WRITERS OF THIS, OR ANY, COUNTRY'' INDEPENDENT
Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial and Commonwealth Writers'' Prizes
''Thrillingly suspenseful''
SUNDAY TIMES''Stunning''
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY''Brilliant''
THE TIMES''Entirely original''
OBSERVER''A classic''
WASHINGTON POSTThe Sunday Times Number One bestseller from the author of Cloud Atlas and Utopia Avenue
In your hands is 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 eighteenth 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,
Trade ReviewSpectacularly accomplished and thrillingly suspenseful . . . it brims with rich, involving and affecting humanity * Sunday Times *
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 * New York Times Book Review *
That rare thing - a novel which actually deserves the accolade "
tour de force" -- Kamila Shamsie, Books of the Year * Daily Telegraph *
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 * Independent on Sunday *
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 * The Times *
Stunning -- Books of the Year * Independent on Sunday *
As compelling as it is strange, the novel is testament to the originality of Mitchell's vision and his great craftiness as a storyteller * Times Literary Supplement *
A heady potion of betrayal, love, superstition, power politics and murder . . . And all this in
the most extraordinary prose * Sunday Telegraph *
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 * Independent *
Moving, thoughtful and unexpectedly funny -- Books of the Year * Observer *
Hugely enjoyable . . . It cracks along, holding us in suspense from the beginning * Literary Review *
Masterpieces make their own rules, and this book is definitely one of them * Scotsman *
David Mitchell is back with a bang . . .
superb * Irish Independent *
Ambitious and fascinating . . . Comparisons to Tolstoy are inevitable, and right on the money * Kirkus Reviews *
A pitch-perfect masterclass in the art, and magic, of narrative -- Books of the Year * Independent *
A marvel - entirely original among contemporary British novels, revealing its author as, surely, the most impressive fictional mind of his generation * Observer *
A formidable marvel * New Yorker *
Extraordinarily entertaining and well-realised -- A. S. Byatt * Observer *
For a tour de force, it's surprisingly nimble, emotionally complex and
simply unforgettable -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *
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 * Irish Times *
The details are fascinating and the prose beautiful . . . simply
magnificent * Historical Novels Review *
Sharp, hilarious, exhilarating stuff. Utterly enjoyable * Mslexia *
An affecting conclusion underscores Mr Mitchell's mastery here not only of
virtuosic literary fireworks, but also of the quieter arts of empathy and traditional storytelling -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *
Dazzles with its density and intensity, its ambition and grandeur * Courier Mail *
Mitchell's masterpiece; and also, I am convinced,
a masterpiece of our time * Boston Globe *
The novelist who's shown us fiction's future has written a
classic tale . . . an epic of sacrificial love, clashing civilizations and enemies who won't rest until whole family lines have been snuffed out * Washington Post *
A
vastly entertaining historical novel, giving the reader a glimpse into a world we know so little of and charting a fascinating period of history * Sydney Morning Herald *
A
marvellously wrought novel, full of fully formed characters and the kind of detail that allows you to sink deep into its imaginary world. I was sorry when I finished * Herald Sun *
