The Books Of Jacob

Author: Olga Tokarczuk

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $34.99 AUD
  • : 9781922330680
  • : The Text Publishing Company
  • : The Text Publishing Company
  • : 0.924
  • : October 2020
  • : {"length"=>["23.4"], "width"=>["15.3"], "units"=>["Centimeters"]}
  • : 34.99
  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

  • :
  • :
  • : Olga Tokarczuk
  • : Paperback
  • :
  • :
  • : English
  • : 992
  • :
  • :
  • :
  • : Jennifer Croft
  • :
Barcode 9781922330680
9781922330680

Description

As 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. The 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.

Awards

Shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.

Author description

Olga Tokarczuk is the winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature and the Man Booker International Prize, for her novel Flights. She has received many other honours, including her country Poland's highest literary award, the Nike, for both Flights and The Books of Jacob, considered by many to be Tokarczuk's masterpiece. Her novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead was also highly praised. She is the author of nine novels, three story collections, a children's book and two collections of essays, and has been translated into fifty languages. Widely regarded as the most important Polish writer of her generation, she lives in Poland.