The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

London: Sceptre, 2010. Limited Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Fine. 105x158x27. Signed by author. Limited edition, one of only 500 copies, released simultaneously with the UK trade edition. Signed by author. Still in original plastic wrap, includes publisher's original slipcase. 2010 Hard Cover. A historical novel by the author of Cloud Atlas, which inspired the film starring Tom Hanks. Longlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize. "The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the Japanese Empire's single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, and costly courtesans comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancée back in Holland. But Jacob's original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured midwife to the city's powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken—the consequences of which will extend beyond Jacob's worst imaginings.