David Mitchell is back! You may remember the hoopla the boys at Riverbend made over David Mitchell’s ‘Cloud Atlas’ a few years ago, and I know a number of our local bookclubs have since read it too. Mitchell’s new book is written a little differently to ‘Cloud Atlas’ (there’s only one main story to contend with here) but it is just as beautifully epic and romantic. Set in Japan in 1799 this is the story of a young Dutch man entranced with the exotic and closed island of Japan (and its inhabitants.) Try this if you want a more full bodied novel similar to Alessandro Baricco’s ‘Silk’ or ‘Silence’ by Endo Shusaku.