The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

This book is SO GOOD.  I had to put it down for a second just to write this.  I am about two-thirds of the way through it, and it is absolutely un-put-down-able.  The first third, all from the perspective of Jacob, a Dutch clerk living in Dejima, a Dutch outpost attached to Nagasaki, was a little slow.  Good, but a little slow.  Then part two grabbed me and didn't let go.  Now I'm in part three, and I'm dying to see what happens.  I'm nervous about the fate of the characters I've come to love, but David Mitchell is not the sort of author who brings terrible things on his characters just to stir up the emotions of his readers.  I hate manipulative authors like that.  Man, I just want a happy ending for Jacob!  I must keep reading now.