Read this ages ago and apparently never put it on the blog:
Jacob accepts a position as clerk with the
Dutch East Indies company at Dejima, a fortress-like town off the coast
of Nagasaki circa 1800. He is young, reverent, intelligent, and
scrupulously honest, which traits may make it difficult for him to make
his fortune quickly enough to marry his sweetheart Anna back home in
Zeeland. His plans get complicated quickly when he meets Orito, a
beautiful but disfigured midwife. Worse for Jacob, he is not the only,
and certainly not the most powerful, man interested in her.
I could give much more detail about the plot, but that would do little
to convey what I found wonderful about this book. The dialogue is so
intricate and complex (and often, extremely funny) that it deserves to
be called Shakespearean. Mitchell conjures up a world that most of us
know nothing about - Japan in a state of almost complete isolation - and
makes it fully real. Jacob's inability to discern friend from foe, even
among his own countrymen, overlays perfectly with the challenges
inherent in all cultural collisions. Suspense, mystery, and the
interplay of faith and the Enlightenment. What could be better?
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