Join David Mitchell to talk about THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET, our September Book of the Month, on Wed 28 September, 9-10pm

[TillyBookClub]

September's Author of the Month has been named as one of the most influential novelists in the world. David Mitchell has twice been shortlisted for the Booker and his novels attract vast numbers of readers and glowing reviews alike.

His latest book, THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET, is a masterpiece of historical fiction. Set in 1799, in the Japanese trading port of Dejima (run by the Dutch East India Trading Company, it is Japan's only window to the outside world), the novel follows young Dutchman Jacob de Zoet's struggle to win his fortune, battle with corruption and begin his love affair with the beautiful but scarred Japanese midwife who is dangerously close to the local Samurai lord. Ambitious, poetic, pacy, full of detail and immaculately researched - this is a novel that creates a world so fully realised that you become utterly engulfed in its pages.

We have 100 free copies for Mumsnetters - find out more at our book of the month page.

And get your paperback or Kindle version now.

We're delighted that David will be joining us for the chat on Wednesday 28 September 9-10pm. Look forward to seeing you there.

@CalatalieSisters

Hasten to add that I didn't mean "thinness of content" (as distinct form form) as a criticism. I think it is good.

"Lecture notes set to fiction" is a great way of characterising the fact that we ought not to look to novelists primarily as purveyors of thematic truths. It is hard, though, as a reader to live up to that. We have to learn to sometimes switch off an overbearing pursuit of meaning?

I wouldn't say 'Have to', CalatalieSisters - you are the sort of reader you are, and no need to change that for anyone, even if the sort of books which may float your boat best of all might not be on the best-seller charts. On the other hand, Tom McCarthy got shortlisted for the Booker, and his work is dense with ideas and meanings.

To echo babybessa's phrase 'I don't know where you get this stuff from' - where DO you get it from? Does your mind permanently fizz with words and pictures and juxtapositions and plotlines?

I have an image of you like a Quentin Blake illustration in a Roald Dahl story, with a vast array of squiggly crazy drawings fireworking out of your head.

Did all that research for Thousand Autumns give you a lot of ideas? or is that mainly background to the events you've already imagined?

Sorry, it is a horribly cliched question, but couldn't help wondering if something specific feeds your imagination - some kind of literary liquid fertiliser.

@babybessa

Hi - very odd sensation writing to an author I admire so much. Gulp. Here goes. Cloud Atlas was incredible and stayed with me for a long time, but this one was even better. I wept buckets at the end. The description of Jacob leaving his son behind was so painful and raw I had to put the book down and 'gather' (I have two sons). I didnt know how you could possibly end the novel, but again, a very moving and beautifully imagined scene (wont spoil for those who have yet to get there). As an English teacher I was blown away by the scene you did of the market in rhyming couplets; astonishingly composed. Just brilliant. Thank you. I dont know where you get this stuff from but please keep doing it!

Oh, and my question: has your novel been translated into Japanese or Dutch and if so, how has it been received?

Thanks for your question, Baby Bessa - no need to gulp, I promise you. I'm glad you felt the ending works - so much harder to land than it is to take off.
1000 AUTUMNS was translated into Dutch (appearing only a few days after the English version came out) and it did very well in the Netherlands. Things move at a more glacial speed in Japan, and it isn't out there yet. We'll see. Japan has had other things to think about this year than foreign fiction. And thanks for your remark about the rhyming scene - nice to earn the approval of an English teacher.

@TillyBookClub

To echo babybessa's phrase 'I don't know where you get this stuff from' - where DO you get it from? Does your mind permanently fizz with words and pictures and juxtapositions and plotlines?

I have an image of you like a Quentin Blake illustration in a Roald Dahl story, with a vast array of squiggly crazy drawings fireworking out of your head.

Did all that research for Thousand Autumns give you a lot of ideas? or is that mainly background to the events you've already imagined?

Sorry, it is a horribly cliched question, but couldn't help wondering if something specific feeds your imagination - some kind of literary liquid fertiliser.

Actually yes, there's this stuff called 'Grow-Ur-Story', you can buy it from most good garden centres. You pour it in your ears before you go to sleep, plug your lug-holes with vaseline to stop it trickling out, and when you wake up, lo and behold, look what's grown ;-)

Seriously - ideas for fiction come like ideas for anything else, from the world, from books, from conversations, from the way you conflate ideas in your head, from your kids, from mishearings and malapropisms... the world's made of them. The trick is to identify ones that sit well, that have potential for development, the ones that are useable amongst the near-infinity of ideas that are not useable.

Hello David
I am impressed by your ability to jump from genre to genre, when so many writers tend to stick to a fairly narrow range.
Given that your previous books have been set in such a variety of backgrounds, what first inspired you to write about 18th century Japan? It is not after all a very well-known area of history (to the average British person at least).

Yes, you're right, all writers shapeshift, but I guess I feel you are particularly adept at changing genre. Many other writers tend to write the same book just with different plots/timeframes. And I like what you say about Hopefully The Right One. Again, many other writers would say they had their voice, and perhaps aren't so aware/bothered whether its the right one.

Just quickly flagging up the questions from babybessa, filmbuffmum, southlondonlady and itsmeandmypuppynow which are much further upthread. Apologies if you're already onto them.

@browneyesblue

I would like to know more about how David's love affair with all things Japanese came about. I love the measured pace and tone of his books, and they have piqued my interest in Japan, so where did it all begin for him?

I'm hoping this will lead to some recommendations so that I don't have to try and sneak a second question in

I had a Japanese girlfriend in London in the early 90s, in my early 20s, an influential age when life is something of a board-game. Japanese fiction I could recommend includes 'The Makioka Sisters' by Juni'ichiro Tanizaki, 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle' by Haruki Murakami and 'Silence' by Shusaku Endo.

@beequeen

Hello David I am impressed by your ability to jump from genre to genre, when so many writers tend to stick to a fairly narrow range. Given that your previous books have been set in such a variety of backgrounds, what first inspired you to write about 18th century Japan? It is not after all a very well-known area of history (to the average British person at least).

Thank you beequeen bzzzz. The fact that 18th century Japan isn't much known about or written about was attractive - fewer competitors! - and the fact that I wanted to write about Dejima, this odd laboratory where East was entangled with, fascinated by and fearful of West, dictated the period - Dejima stopped existing in the 1850s. As a reader, I'd rather read about a time and place I know little about than those I know a lot about, and every writer is guided by his or her inner reader...

Interesting that you say that you'd rather read about a subject you know little about - I tend to agree with you, and I love the 'educational' aspect of historical fiction, but as the mother of a 13 year old and living not that far from the Malverns was absolutely haunted by Black Swan Green

I'm strangely excited at the prospect of exploring a whole new area of fiction! Thank you for the recommendations :)

Just popping by late as usual

Hello David,

Thanks for joining us.

I am completely mortified that I am so behind on your book which I'm reading on my kindle.

Do you like the idea of e-books rather than hard/paperbacks?

I also sometimes listen to audio books at night which gives me more of a chance to get through things.
I have just looked to see how long the THOUSAND AUTUMNS audio version is , and it's over 18 hours!
Have you heard it? Were you pleased with it?

No question, but I just wanted to say that I loved "Black Swan Green". The description of the newsagents, with loads of stuff no one ever buys really reminds me of the shop I work in, unfortunately! The dialogue of 1980s high school was spot on, too - thankfully kids don't seem as cruel anymore.

Hi David, I love the books of yours that I have read, and am enjoying reading your answers here tonight. You are brilliant at creating worlds in which the reader can become immersed, great for reading whilst commuting!
Just wondering how the success of Cloud Atlas affected you? Do you feel extra pressure when writing now, or are you just enjoying it?

Thanks for letting on the links between the stories and the way you let the reader travel time and space to something new (when the reality of daily life is rather very boring for many of us). Keep up the good work - it's much appreciated. Now wishing I'd managed to squeeze that extra hour out of the day to think up some more questions - they'll all occur to me tomorrow!

ahhh grammar - it's late!

Only a few minutes to go - David, are you happy to answer the remaining unanswered questions and then we'll call it a day?

@Filmbuffmum

So glad I didn't forget about this! As the mother of two young sons, I loved Black Swan Green and felt that it really gave me some insight into how it might feel to be a boy! I'm rather nervous about the filming of Cloud Atlas and was wondering how much input you had into the adaptation process? I did a course on film adaptations once, and can only really remember feeling satisfied with the film version of Joyce's short story The Dead, otherwise concluded that the cliche about good books making poor films and vice versa was largely true. Have you see the finished version yet, and do you feel it captures your internal view of the book, and does a writer even have such a thing, or is it modified by critical and reader responses? Hope to still be up and available at 9pm (insomniac 2 year old is messing up my evenings!!)

Hope your insomniac is in dreamland, Filmbuffmum -

I had very little input into the film, which was fine with me - screenwriting is a different art to novel-writing, and it would be arrogant to think I could do both. But I have met the Waciowskis and Tom Tykwer - the directors who also wrote the script for the film - and I respect them as writers very much. Also I attended the cast read-thru of the script in Berlin about a month ago, and at least on paper the film worked very well. It doesn't follow the book too slavishly, which is where a lot of film adaptations go wrong. Does a writer have an internal view of a book? I guess, though I wrote the thing 10 years ago now, so I'm not sure what my view was... yes, I think it is modified by the world's view of the book, unless you live as a total hermit and avoid ever encountering the world's view of the book. A tall order in our linked-in twittering age...

@TillyBookClub

Only a few minutes to go - David, are you happy to answer the remaining unanswered questions and then we'll call it a day?

sure Tilly -
I'll answer Rosy and Natto and apologise to those whose Qs have gone unanswered this time...

@Rosy

No question, but I just wanted to say that I loved "Black Swan Green". The description of the newsagents, with loads of stuff no one ever buys really reminds me of the shop I work in, unfortunately! The dialogue of 1980s high school was spot on, too - thankfully kids don't seem as cruel anymore.

I can't help but wonder what sort of shop you work in, Rosy - tho' I guess you must sell some units, otherwise the shop wouldn't exist. Thanks for your remark about my dialogue, and here's hoping humaneness is a cooler personality-facet for contemporary kids.

@natto

Hi David, I love the books of yours that I have read, and am enjoying reading your answers here tonight. You are brilliant at creating worlds in which the reader can become immersed, great for reading whilst commuting! Just wondering how the success of Cloud Atlas affected you? Do you feel extra pressure when writing now, or are you just enjoying it?

thanks Natto - did you know you are named after fermented soy beans which taste of stilton, often mixed into rice by the Japanese?

I had a slow immersion into the swimming pool of literary reputation, so I never had to handle instant fame, luckily for me. I think I have evolved pressure-ignoring skin, so when it's just me and the book I'm working on, I can focus on the book I'm working on. I enjoy writing very much. The job of putting together sentences, sentences which - we hope - have no faults, no cracks, no cruddy bits sticking out - that's a source of the deepest satisfaction for me.

Yes, I have tried it and it's probably the least appetising vegetarian food I've ever eaten. Thanks a lot for answering my question, and keep up the good work!

dear Olivia Mumsnet,

really nice you could join us - I know how busy any mum is (and dads can earn their busy stripes too). 18 hours of audio book? Holy Disc-changer, Batman. Ideal for commutes, or house-painting, or situations where you are physically occupied but mentally free. (To answer your question, I listened to segments, and was pleased with the quality of the readings - hearing your work spoken brings lines to life in unexpected ways - but I didn't actually listen to all 18 hours. Entre nous.)

@OliviaMumsnet

Just popping by late as usual

Hello David,

Thanks for joining us.

I am completely mortified that I am so behind on your book which I'm reading on my kindle.

Do you like the idea of e-books rather than hard/paperbacks?

I also sometimes listen to audio books at night which gives me more of a chance to get through things.
I have just looked to see how long the THOUSAND AUTUMNS audio version is , and it's over 18 hours!
Have you heard it? Were you pleased with it?

A fascinating discussion night - thanks to everyone for your questions.

David, thank you very very much indeed for coming on and for your thoughtful and insightful answers. Looking forward to seeing what you write next. Please come back and talk about it, whatever it is. Has been a joy and delight to have you here.

Good luck with it all and thanks again.

''The job of putting together sentences, sentences which - we hope - have no faults, no cracks, no cruddy bits sticking out - that's a source of the deepest satisfaction for me.''

and it shows many thanks for a brilliant chat

I'm listening to the audiobook while running, and it's the best motivation I've ever had to get out there (and distracts me from the pain)