First published 2010
Jacob de Zoet arrives at Dejima in 1799, a walled artificial island in Nagasaki Harbor where a handful of Dutch merchants conduct Japan's only foreign trade. The devout young clerk plans to spend five years earning enough money to marry his wealthy fiancée back in Holland. Dejima teems with corrupt traders, dishonest interpreters, and expensive courtesans, all confined to this fan-shaped prison that keeps Western influence at bay. Jacob's careful plans unravel when he meets Orito Aibagawa, a disfigured samurai's daughter who works as a midwife for the city's magistrate. Their encounter blurs the lines between duty and desire, profit and principle. Jacob makes a rash promise he cannot keep, setting off consequences that reach far beyond what he imagined possible. On this remote outpost of the crumbling Dutch East Indies Company, where earthquakes and typhoons threaten as much as human scheming, Jacob discovers that survival itself becomes a gamble.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Dejima, Nagasaki Harbor
Period: 1799
479 pages · Hardcover · Random House