Waiting on "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet"

As I mentioned the other day, I can't wait to get my hands on David Mitchell's "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet", a title that scares me a bit to be honest with you. I've got faith in Mitchell as a writer, for he even made a coming of age in Britain novel - Black Swan Green - absolutely riveting reading.

Here's how Dave Eggers wrote about it in the NYTimes. Money quote:

If the book sounds dense, that’s because it is. It’s a novel of ideas, of longing, of good and evil and those who fall somewhere in between. And are there even nods to the story of Persephone, also born of privilege, also found plucking exotic fruit, also abducted — whose removal from the world causes the world’s seasons? Maybe, maybe not. There are no easy answers or facile connections in “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.” In fact, it’s not an easy book, period. Its pacing can be challenging, and its idiosyncrasies are many. But it offers innumerable rewards for the patient reader and confirms Mitchell as one of the more fascinating and fearless­writers alive.