68 An Intimate Afternoon with David Mitchell

David Mitchell has been called many things, all of them enviable. According to Dave Eggers, Mitchell is “one of the more fearless and fascinating writers alive.” Charles Foran declares him “the most gifted of his generation of novelists.” Of his five novels, two have been shortlisted for the Mann Booker Prize. He is perhaps best known for his mind-altering modern classic Cloud Atlas, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and sold in the neighbourhood of a million copies worldwide. Mitchell joins us this evening with a new masterpiece, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which follows a Dutch accountant’s adventures in feudal Japan. In the hands of this formidably talented writer, this is no ordinary tale, and this will be no ordinary evening.