Number9Dream

📘 About This Book

By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize “A novel as accomplished as anything being written.”—Newsweek Number9Dream is the international literary sensation from a writer with astonishing range and imaginative energy—an intoxicating ride through Tokyo’s dark underworlds and the even more mysterious landscapes of our collective dreams. David Mitchell follows his eerily precocious, globe-striding first novel, Ghostwritten, with a work that is in its way even more ambitious. In outward form, Number9Dream is a Dickensian coming-of-age journey: Young dreamer Eiji Miyake, from remote rural Japan, thrust out on his own by his sister’s death and his mother’s breakdown, comes to Tokyo in pursuit of the father who abandoned him. Stumbling around this strange, awesome city, he trips over and crosses—through a hidden destiny or just monstrously bad luck—a number of its secret power centers. Suddenly, the riddle of his father’s identity becomes just one of the increasingly urgent questions Eiji must answer. Why is the line between the world of his experiences and the world of his dreams so blurry? Why do so many horrible things keep happening to him? What is it about the number 9? To answer these questions, and ultimately to come to terms with his inheritance, Eiji must somehow acquire an insight into the workings of history and fate that would be rare in anyone, much less in a boy from out of town with a price on his head and less than the cost of a Beatles disc to his name. Praise for Number9Dream “Delirious—a grand blur of overwhelming sensation.”—Entertainment Weekly “To call Mitchell’s book a simple quest novel . . is like calling Don DeLillo’s Underworld the story of a missing baseball.”—The New York Times Book Review “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.”—San Francisco Chronicle “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.”—The New Yorker “Leaping with ease from surrealist fables to a teenage coming-of-age story and then spinning back to Yakuza gangster battles and World War II–era kamikaze diaries, Mitchell is an aerial freestyle ski-jumper of fiction. Somehow, after performing feats of literary gymnastics, he manages to stick the landing.”—The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

📖 Summary

Number9Dream by David Mitchell is an intoxicating and imaginative literary journey that plunges readers deep into the vibrant, neon-lit underworlds of Tokyo as well as the deeply mysterious landscapes of human dreams. Written by the internationally celebrated author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas, this ambitious novel follows the brilliant and eerily precocious storytelling style that cemented Mitchell as a major voice in contemporary fiction. Published in 2007, the book spans nearly five hundred pages of rich prose and stands as a modern testament to inventive narrative structure. At its core, the novel takes the outward form of a classic Dickensian coming-of-age journey. The protagonist is Eiji Miyake, a young dreamer hailing from a remote rural part of Japan. Thrust out into the world entirely on his own following the devastating death of his sister and the subsequent emotional breakdown of his mother, Eiji finds himself in the sprawling, overwhelming metropolis of Tokyo. His primary mission is deeply personal: he has come to the city in desperate pursuit of the father who abandoned him long ago. This search for paternal identity and connection drives the narrative forward, anchoring the surreal and kaleidoscopic episodes that follow. As Eiji navigates the vast expanse of Tokyo, the boundary between reality and hallucination begins to blur. Mitchell masterfully weaves together gritty realism with fantastical flights of fancy, drawing readers into the dizzying inner life of a young man trying to make sense of loss, abandonment, and transition. The city itself functions almost as a character, shifting from a bustling modern hub of technology and commerce to a dark, labyrinthine underworld filled with eccentric figures, hidden dangers, and bizarre encounters. Alongside his physical quest through the urban sprawl, Eiji experiences vivid dreams that provide profound psychological insight into his past, his familial traumas, and his subconscious desires. Throughout the nearly five hundred pages, Mitchell explores universal themes of identity, longing, and resilience. Eiji is not merely looking for a lost parent; he is searching for a sense of wholeness and a place where he truly belongs in a world that has stripped away his foundational supports. The narrative moves at an exhilarating pace, matching the relentless energy of Tokyo itself while allowing moments of quiet, poignant reflection on grief and the human condition. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Number9Dream showcases Mitchell's astonishing range and boundless imaginative energy, offering a novel that is as intellectually stimulating as it is emotionally resonant. It challenges readers to question the nature of reality and memory, leaving a lasting impression long after the final page is turned.

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✍️ About the Author

David Mitchell

David Mitchell (b. 1969) is a British author known for intricately structured, genre-blending fiction, including 'Cloud Atlas'.

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