The Books of Jacob

In the mid-1700s, as transformative ideas ripple through Europe, a mysterious young Jewish man arrives in a Polish village. This enigmatic figure, Jacob Frank, quickly alters both his identity and his demeanor. He experiences what appear to be ecstatic visions, casting a compelling influence that draws a passionate group of followers. Over the next decade, Frank journeys across the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires, constantly reinventing himself. His path includes conversions to Islam and later to Catholicism, earning him both denunciation as a heretic and veneration as a Messiah. His movement leaves a trail of disruption, challenging both Jewish and Christian traditions with scandalous whispers about his sect’s secretive rites and radical beliefs. In her acclaimed work, "The Books of Jacob," Olga Tokarczuk, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018, narrates Frank's story through the eyes of those who lived during his time. She vividly portrays an Enlightenment-era Europe on the brink of significant transformations, grappling with a desire for certainty and a yearning for the divine.