1799, a young Dutch clerk arriving on the island of Dejima, off the coast of Nagasaki, becomes embroiled in a labyrinthian adventure. I struggled at first with the large cast of characters with their Dutch and Japanese names, but then completely succumbed to this complex tale involving greed, skulduggery, love, duplicity, suspicion, treachery, religion and superstition and was roller-coasted to the end only to slowly read it again to savour all the nuances of Mitchell's dazzling writing.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 57 Summer 2010 ) |
