Description
'ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANTLY INVENTIVE WRITERS OF THIS, OR ANY, COUNTRY' INDEPENDENT
Shortlisted for the Booker and James Tait Black Memorial Prizes
'Spellbinding'
INDEPENDENT
'Exceptional'
LITERARY REVIEW
'Beautifully precise'
GUARDIAN
'Marvellous'
OBSERVER
'Constantly entertaining'
EVENING STANDARD
The captivating second novel from the critically acclaimed author of Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas
As Eiji Miyake's twentieth birthday nears, he arrives in Tokyo with a mission - to locate the father he has never met. So begins a search that takes him into the seething city's underworld, its lost property offices and video arcades, and on a journey that zigzags from reality to the realm of dreams. But until Eiji has fallen in love and exorcised his childhood demons, the belonging he craves will remain, tantalizingly, just beyond his grasp.
PRAISE FOR DAVID MITCHELL
'A thrilling and gifted writer'
FINANCIAL TIMES
'Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good'
DAILY MAIL
'Mitchell is, clearly, a genius'
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
'An author of extraordinary ambition and skill'
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'A superb storyteller'
THE NEW YORKER
Shortlisted for the Booker and the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes
About the Author
Reviews
Dazzling * Independent on Sunday *
A delirious mix of thriller, tragedy, fantasy, video games and a portrait of uneasy modern Japan * Guardian *
Wildly inventive * Sunday Times *
An extraordinary literary cabaret of dreams, visions and pastiches, from video-game rides and gangster rumbles to suicide submariners. Endlessly ingenious and hugely enjoyable - but oddly moving as well. A rich showcase for 21st-century fiction -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *
Exceptional . . . More than a surreal detective story or coming-of-age novel, more than a portrait of Tokyo or stream of adolescent consciousness, it is unique: clever, unusual, gripping and beautifully written * Literary Review *
I haven't enjoyed a novel so much in ages; wild, bristling with strangeness -- Books of the Year * Independent *
Mitchell catches the multicoloured atmosphere of Tokyo brilliantly . . . He is a wonderfully amphibious writer, happy in all manner of elements, and seems able to produce an endless parade of interesting characters. number9dream resounds to the same marvellous chatter of different voices that marked out Ghostwritten, his outstanding first novel -- Robert Macfarlane * Observer *
The wonderfully energetic prose is constantly entertaining, filled with daring imaginative stunts and the crackling rhythms of the digital age . . . Mitchell's Tokyo is a deliciously confusing virtual reality, a maze of bewildering information. Most impressive of all, though, is the fact that when you reach the end, wondering if it was all just a dream, you don't feel cheated in the least * Evening Standard *
Ghostwritten's range of voices was astonishing. Each narrator revealed anew the author's dexterity and his ability to imagine lives. His second novel is more ambitious and more impressive . . . the main plot drives one urgently onwards, and Mitchell's delight in his inventiveness is infectious * Daily Telegraph *
Generally speaking, the second novel confronts two pitfalls: rehashing the first novel or eliminating all trace of it for fear of rehashing it. In number9dream, Mitchell negotiates both dangers, retaining what is best of Ghostwritten and creating an original and in many ways more complex work * Times Literary Supplement *
The external action of the novel is always engaging. But such is Mitchell's beautifully precise style that he can make inaction just as pleasurable . . . The prose bespeaks a kind of observational rapture that offers the smell of Tokyo streets or even the movements of a cockroach as tiny, cherishable shards * Guardian *
Dangerously addictive . . . Mitchell's writing displays the kind of literary acrobatics and metaphysical depth that won him such huge accolades for his first novel . . . a brave novel, all the more admirable for his ability to push back the boundaries of the imagination * Big Issue *
The diversity and sheer pace of the narrative sets it well apart from most contemporary British fiction and Mitchell is an original with a flair for fantasy . . . oozing panache, this cosmopolitan and fresh odyssey engages and entertains * Irish Times *
He is a very energised and original sentence architect who elevates the steaming, fizzing city of Tokyo into a city of the imagination . . . a gifted and unusual writer * The Times *
Superlative * Sunday Telegraph *
A novel as accomplished as anything being written. Funny, tenderhearted and horrifying, often all at once, it refashions the rudiments of the coming-of-age novel into something completely original * Newsweek *
number9dream, with its propulsive energy, its Joycean eruption of language and playfulness, represents further confirmation that David Mitchell should be counted among the top young novelists working today . . . He writes like a dream, the kind you don't want to end * San Francisco Chronicle *
Delirious - a grand blur of overwhelming sensation * Entertainment Weekly *
Mitchell's new novel has been described as a cross between Don DeLillo and William Gibson, and although that's a perfectly serviceable cocktail-party formula, it doesn't do justice to this odd, fitfully compelling work * New Yorker *
Awards
Short-listed for Booker Prize for Fiction 2001.
Book Information
ISBN 9780340747971
Author David Mitchell
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Sceptre
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Weight(grams) 300g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 137mm * 28mm
Shortlisted for the Booker and James Tait Black Memorial Prizes
'Spellbinding'
INDEPENDENT
'Exceptional'
LITERARY REVIEW
'Beautifully precise'
GUARDIAN
'Marvellous'
OBSERVER
'Constantly entertaining'
EVENING STANDARD
The captivating second novel from the critically acclaimed author of Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas
As Eiji Miyake's twentieth birthday nears, he arrives in Tokyo with a mission - to locate the father he has never met. So begins a search that takes him into the seething city's underworld, its lost property offices and video arcades, and on a journey that zigzags from reality to the realm of dreams. But until Eiji has fallen in love and exorcised his childhood demons, the belonging he craves will remain, tantalizingly, just beyond his grasp.
PRAISE FOR DAVID MITCHELL
'A thrilling and gifted writer'
FINANCIAL TIMES
'Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good'
DAILY MAIL
'Mitchell is, clearly, a genius'
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
'An author of extraordinary ambition and skill'
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'A superb storyteller'
THE NEW YORKER
Shortlisted for the Booker and the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes
About the Author
David Mitchell is the author of the novels Ghostwritten, number9dream, Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The Bone Clocks, Slade House and Utopia Avenue. He has been shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize, won the World Fantasy Award, and the John Llewellyn Rhys, Geoffrey Faber Memorial and South Bank Show Literature Prizes, among others. In 2018, he won the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence, given in recognition of a writer's entire body of work. His screenwriting credits include the TV shows Pachinko and Sense8, and the movie Matrix: Resurrections.
In addition, David Mitchell together with KA Yoshida has translated from Japanese two autism memoirs by Naoki Higashida: The Reason I Jump and Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight.
He lives in Ireland.
Reviews
Dazzling * Independent on Sunday *
A delirious mix of thriller, tragedy, fantasy, video games and a portrait of uneasy modern Japan * Guardian *
Wildly inventive * Sunday Times *
An extraordinary literary cabaret of dreams, visions and pastiches, from video-game rides and gangster rumbles to suicide submariners. Endlessly ingenious and hugely enjoyable - but oddly moving as well. A rich showcase for 21st-century fiction -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *
Exceptional . . . More than a surreal detective story or coming-of-age novel, more than a portrait of Tokyo or stream of adolescent consciousness, it is unique: clever, unusual, gripping and beautifully written * Literary Review *
I haven't enjoyed a novel so much in ages; wild, bristling with strangeness -- Books of the Year * Independent *
Mitchell catches the multicoloured atmosphere of Tokyo brilliantly . . . He is a wonderfully amphibious writer, happy in all manner of elements, and seems able to produce an endless parade of interesting characters. number9dream resounds to the same marvellous chatter of different voices that marked out Ghostwritten, his outstanding first novel -- Robert Macfarlane * Observer *
The wonderfully energetic prose is constantly entertaining, filled with daring imaginative stunts and the crackling rhythms of the digital age . . . Mitchell's Tokyo is a deliciously confusing virtual reality, a maze of bewildering information. Most impressive of all, though, is the fact that when you reach the end, wondering if it was all just a dream, you don't feel cheated in the least * Evening Standard *
Ghostwritten's range of voices was astonishing. Each narrator revealed anew the author's dexterity and his ability to imagine lives. His second novel is more ambitious and more impressive . . . the main plot drives one urgently onwards, and Mitchell's delight in his inventiveness is infectious * Daily Telegraph *
Generally speaking, the second novel confronts two pitfalls: rehashing the first novel or eliminating all trace of it for fear of rehashing it. In number9dream, Mitchell negotiates both dangers, retaining what is best of Ghostwritten and creating an original and in many ways more complex work * Times Literary Supplement *
The external action of the novel is always engaging. But such is Mitchell's beautifully precise style that he can make inaction just as pleasurable . . . The prose bespeaks a kind of observational rapture that offers the smell of Tokyo streets or even the movements of a cockroach as tiny, cherishable shards * Guardian *
Dangerously addictive . . . Mitchell's writing displays the kind of literary acrobatics and metaphysical depth that won him such huge accolades for his first novel . . . a brave novel, all the more admirable for his ability to push back the boundaries of the imagination * Big Issue *
The diversity and sheer pace of the narrative sets it well apart from most contemporary British fiction and Mitchell is an original with a flair for fantasy . . . oozing panache, this cosmopolitan and fresh odyssey engages and entertains * Irish Times *
He is a very energised and original sentence architect who elevates the steaming, fizzing city of Tokyo into a city of the imagination . . . a gifted and unusual writer * The Times *
Superlative * Sunday Telegraph *
A novel as accomplished as anything being written. Funny, tenderhearted and horrifying, often all at once, it refashions the rudiments of the coming-of-age novel into something completely original * Newsweek *
number9dream, with its propulsive energy, its Joycean eruption of language and playfulness, represents further confirmation that David Mitchell should be counted among the top young novelists working today . . . He writes like a dream, the kind you don't want to end * San Francisco Chronicle *
Delirious - a grand blur of overwhelming sensation * Entertainment Weekly *
Mitchell's new novel has been described as a cross between Don DeLillo and William Gibson, and although that's a perfectly serviceable cocktail-party formula, it doesn't do justice to this odd, fitfully compelling work * New Yorker *
Awards
Short-listed for Booker Prize for Fiction 2001.
Book Information
ISBN 9780340747971
Author David Mitchell
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Sceptre
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Weight(grams) 300g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 137mm * 28mm
