The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet

By David Mitchell

1. Why do the Japanese isolate European traders from their society, walling them off on a man-made island? What do they wish to accomplish...or avoid?

2. How do the Europeans view "orientals" during the period this novel takes place? What are the stereotypes they perpetrate? Why are Europeans determined to break through the barriers errected by the Shoguns—are their motives humanistic or mercenary...principled or unprincipled?

3. What are the differences between European and Japanese cultures? Describe the conflicting social, political and cultural values Jacob faces in Dekima. In an interview with a Japanese newspaper, David Mitchell said his intention was to "write a bicultural novel, where Japanese perspectives are given an equal weight to Dutch/European perspectives." Do you think Mitchell succeeded in being even-handed to both cultures?

4. Jacob is referred to as "an honest soul in a human swamp of crocodiles, a sharp quill among blunt nibs." How well does this passage describe his character? How else would you describe Jacob; what other personality/character traits does he possess?

5. Is Jacob naive to see right and wrong as "moral bookkeeping" and to believe "all that matters is truth"? How difficult is it in this book to define, or discern, or prove what is true?

6. Follow-up to Question 5: Mitchell is interested in language. How powerful are the story's translators? What role do translators play in protecting—or distorting—meaning and truth through the use of language? In what way do they affect the destiny of the two nations?

7. Follow-up to Question 6: what is the difficult moral dilemma faced by Ogawa Uzaemon?

8. Discuss Japanese society: its highly stratified social order, including the role and of women and restrictions placed on them. Is Japanes society more or less hierarchical than European society?

9. Talk about Orito Aibagawa and her disfigurement. How has Mitchell developed her as a character—how would you describe her? As a follow-up to Question 7, what is her role in Japanese society? In what ways does Japanese culture restrict, even debase Orito. What is it that makes Jacob fall in love with her when he is already committed to a fiancee back home—and when Orito, herself, is in love with another?

10. Discuss John Penhaligon and the pivotal decisions he makes in the novel.

11. Which of the book's three sections do you find most engaging...or least engaging?

12.Mitchell plays with time in this novel, moving back and forth between the Japanes and Gregorian calendars—and back and forth in time. What affect does this have on the novel? Why might the author have used a distorted timeline?

13. How would you classify this novel—as a suspense-thriller, mystery, melodrama, cultural study, or historical novel? How would you describe it to someone?