The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Another recently read book about the end of the 18th century. But this time the action has place at the other side of the world, in the Closed Empire - the Shogunate of Japan. Only one nation among Europeans pried this closed gate - the Dutch with the only trade mission in Nagasaki. A young man, full of hopes, gingerly steps on this unknown threshold. What it would bring for Jacob de Zoet, the junior clerk of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the famous United East India Company. A beautiful bittersweet mixture of two so different cultures goes through all the book. This story tells us that sometimes you need to go to the other end of the world in order to find yourself.