Another winner from Mitchell. I have read most of his other works, so came late to this debut. It has his trademark style of nested stories, which he later perfected in books such as Cloud Atlas. I did sense that this book started as a collection of short stories that he then strung together in a novel. He is so bursting with ideas perhaps this form suits him best. But perhaps I am just too thick to understand the connection that links all the stories together. Not that it matters, as the book is a great read, with some stories (such as the Mountain Tea Shack) that are evocative, moving and immersive. What more could one want from a novel?

The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is to distinguish it from Mitchell’s other great books. I therefore use separate calibrated scale for Mitchell. His 4 star book would be anyone else’s 5 start master work.