The amulet had been swallowed by an elderly Jewish women named Yente, who spends the duration of the book in a mystical all-seeing state, hovering over and sometimes commenting on the messianic quests of the different members of her extended family. The Books of Jacob, first published in Poland in 2014, begins in 1752 in the town of Rohatyn-in what was then Poland but is today Ukraine-with a magic spell cast from an amulet.
In her strangely immersive historical epic The Books of Jacob, Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk, a Polish-born Catholic turned atheist, dramatizes a slice of Jewish history you almost certainly never learned about in Hebrew school: the true story of the infamous false messiah Jacob Frank (1726-1791). At close to 1,000 pages and divided into seven “books,” this deeply researched tome is fascinating, but not for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, its portrait of a society in upheaval-shown through the eyes of an expansive network of characters-has the power to both enlighten and unnerve, especially in its eerie reflection of the rampant prejudices and inequalities that roil our world today. Translated by Jennifer Croft (Riverhead Books) Narrated through the perspectives of his contemporaries-those who revere him, those who revile him, the friend who betrays him, the lone woman who sees him for what he is- The Books of Jacob captures a world on the cusp of precipitous change, searching for certainty and longing for transcendence.By Olga Tokarczuk. The story of Frank-a real historical figure around whom mystery and controversy swirl to this day-is the perfect canvas for the genius and unparalleled reach of Olga Tokarczuk. In the decade to come, Frank will traverse the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires, throngs of disciples in his thrall as he reinvents himself again and again, converts to Islam and then Catholicism, is pilloried as a heretic and revered as the Messiah, and wreaks havoc on the conventional order, Jewish and Christian alike, with scandalous rumors of his sect’s secret rituals and the spread of his increasingly iconoclastic beliefs. Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following. In the mid-eighteenth century, as new ideas-and a new unrest-begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. The Nobel Prize-winner’s richest, most sweeping and ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a mysterious, Messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across eighteenth-century Europe.
Presented in partnership with Point Reyes Books and Green Apple Books on the Park. Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk and Man Booker winning translator Jennifer Croft join Michael Holtmann to celebrate the release of The Books of Jacob.
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