Jacob de Zoetin tuhat syksyä

I grabbed this at the library, because I really liked [b:Cloud Atlas 49628 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1406383769s/49628.jpg 1871423] and enjoyed [b:Black Swan Green 14316 Black Swan Green David Mitchell https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320562118s/14316.jpg 2166883]. The setting seemed interesting as well – the shuttered country of Japan, seen through the eyes of a Dutch merchant.This was a bit of a hard read for me, mostly because De Zoet is somewhat frustrating protagonist. Fortunately the book shifts the view a bit and offers something else for a while, and then De Zoet becomes less frustrating.All in all rather well done. But a nasty anachronism has slipped into the book. The women play mah jong, in Japan, in the year 1799. Mah jong did not arrive until 1924, and wasn't even invented until the 1850s or so. Oops. There's also a discussion about the Black War some 20-30 years before it actually happened.