


That the Wise Might Have It for a Record, That My Compatriots Reflect, Laypersons Gain Some Understanding, and Melancholy Souls Obtain Some Slight Enjoyment. The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk review a magical mystic tour The Nobel prize winner’s intriguing account of Jacob Frank, an 18th-century Jewish religious thinker hailed as the Messiah. Told by the Dead, Supplemented by the Author, Drawing From a Range of Books, and Aided by Imagination, the Which Being the Greatest Natural Gift of Any Person. Deep breath: “A Fantastic Journey Across Seven Borders, Five Languages, and Three Major Religions, Not Counting the Minor Sects. Over a thousand pages long, dense with history and incident, it. Even its voluminous subtitle is a witty expression of Tokarczuk’s irrepressible, omnivorous reach. Originally published in Poland in 2014, The Books of Jacob is Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s masterwork that first earned her the attention of the Swedish Academy, which hailed her narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life. The Books of Jacob by the Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk is an epic chronicle of the life and times of Frank and his followers. “The Books of Jacob” is finally available here in a wondrous English translation by Jennifer Croft, and it’s just as awe-inspiring as the Nobel judges claimed when they praised Tokarczuk for showing “the supreme capacity of the novel to represent a case almost beyond human understanding.” In terms of its scope and ambition, “The Books of Jacob” is beyond anything else I’ve ever read.

But nothing should overshadow Tokarczuk’s literary presence in the United States now. The latest novel by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk takes us back to 18th century Eastern Europe.
