Chairperson: Brendan Barrington

"Mitchell is, clearly, a genius."
The New York Times Book Review

In an exclusive visit to Dublin Writers Festival, Booker-shortlisted novelist David Mitchell discusses his latest work. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is Mitchell’s eagerly awaited sixth novel.

Imagine an empire that has shut out the world for a century and a half. No one can leave, foreigners are excluded, their religions banned and their ideas deeply mistrusted. Yet a narrow window onto this nation-fortress still exists: an artificial walled island connected to a mainland port, and manned by a handful of European traders. For one young Dutch clerk, a strange adventure of duplicity, love, guilt, faith and murder is about to begin… 

Mitchell made his name with a series of dizzying, multilayered narratives. Ghostwritten won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; Number9dream was shortlisted for the Booker; as was Cloud Atlas, the author's most ambitious and bravura feat of storytelling yet. The Costa-shortlisted Black Swan Green was less elliptical but equally luminous. Now The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoetcements Mitchell’s reputation as ‘an author of extraordinary ambition and skill' (Independent on Sunday).