The Sword and Laser discussion

From time to time, I come across a mention of David Mitchell leaving little shout outs from one book to another. I just read this in a blogger's review of his most recent novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet:

"There is one delight, though, that I have yet to experience. When asked about the occasional recurrence of his characters from one book to another, Mitchell described a sort of waiting room, where every character he's ever written hangs out, and if he has a place for them in a story, they get a new part. I'm wondering whether Thousand Autumns is populated by any of the characters from the first section of Cloud Atlas, which takes place on a sailing vessel around the same time. Now, I'm gloatingly preserving the delight of re-reading Cloud Atlas to discover which characters might have life in both books. And perhaps "gloatingly preserving" is what made me wait so long to read Thousand Autumns anyway."

I've read everything by Mitchell. Has anyone else read any of his other works? Now I want to go back....

Sonmi-451 is definitely an echo of the main female character in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet (sorry can't remember her name) and the Dinery has similarities to the monastery where she was enslaved. The plight of the woman killed by the yakuza in number9dream is also echoed here.

I've read a few of Mitchell's works. The daughter, Eva in Frobishers story (Cloud Atlas) also has a role in Black Swan Green, as does a character in Ghostwritten.