(Ebook) The Books Of Jacob: A Novel by Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft ISBN 9781910695593, 1910695599, B09HBTQCKG

(Ebook) The Books Of Jacob: A Novel by Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft ISBN 9781910695593, 1910695599, B09HBTQCKG

The Nobel Prize–winner’s richest, most sweeping and most 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.“Sophisticated and ribald and brimming with folk wit. . . The comedy in this novel blends, as it does in life, with genuine tragedy.” –  Dwight Garner, The New York TimesAs new ideas - and a new unrest - begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a spell that attracts a fervent following. 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 rumours of his sect's secret rituals and the spread of his iconoclastic beliefs."As daunting as it sounds, The Books of Jacob is miraculously entertaining and consistently fascinating. Despite his best efforts, Frank never mastered alchemy, but Tokarczuk certainly has. Her light irony, delightfully conveyed by Croft’s translation, infuses many of the sections … The quality that makes The Books of Jacob so striking is its remarkable form… This is a story that grows simultaneously more detailed and more mysterious … Haunting and irresistible.”  -  Ron Charles, The Washington PostThe story of Frank - a real historical figure, a divisive yet charismatic man - is the perfect canvas for the genius and unparalleled reach of Olga Tokarczuk. 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.Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize For Fiction