The Books of Jacob

The Books of Jacob^[a] (Polish: Księgi Jakubowe^{[b] [c]} ) is an epic historical novel ^[5] by Olga Tokarczuk, published by Wydawnictwo Literackie in October 2014.^[6] It is Tokarczuk's ninth novel and is the product of extensive historical research, taking her seven years to write.^[7]

The Books of Jacob is a 912-page novel divided into seven books. It begins in 1752 in Rohatyn and ends in Holocaust-era Korolówka.^[8] Its title subject is Jacob Frank, a Polish Jew who claimed to be the messiah. The novel combines dozens of third-person perspectives of those connected to Jacob Frank.^[9]

Upon publication, it was an instant best-seller and won Poland's most prestigious literary prize, the Nike Award.^[9] By October 2015, the novel's circulation had reached 100,000 copies.^[10] When Tokarczuk was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel Committee said that it was "very impressed" by The Books of Jacob.^[5] An English translation by Jennifer Croft was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions on 15 November 2021.^{[11] [12]} Croft won a 2015 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for The Books of Jacob.^[13] A US publication by Riverhead Books was released on 1 February 2022.^[14]

The extensive historical novel (over 1000 pages) is divided into seven books that illuminate the life of Jakob Frank and his followers from different perspectives. The story is set mainly in Podolia, in the borderland between present-day Poland and Ukraine, during the time of the First Polish Republic (1569-1795), the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (1772-1918), and the Principality of Moldavia (1359-1859).

Book I: The Book of Fog

The story begins in Rohatyn, where the Catholic priest and encyclopedist Benedykt Chmielowski meets the Jewish scholar Elischa Schor and begins an exchange about religious writings. Chmielowski gives Schor a copy of his encyclopedia "The New Athens," whereupon Schor presents him with the "Kabbala Denudata." During his journey to Rohatyn, Chmielowski meets the Baroque poet Elzbieta Druzbacka, with whom he maintains an active correspondence.

A central element of this section is the story of Jenta, Jakob Frank's grandmother. When she is about to die at a wedding celebration in Elischa Schor's house, a kabbalistic amulet is placed in her mouth to delay her death until after the wedding. Unintentionally, this puts Jenta in a state between life and death – she becomes immortal and can see everything that happened in the past and will happen in the future.

Book II: The Book of Sand

The second book describes Jakob Frank's early years through the eyes of Nachman Samuel Ben Levi, one of his early followers. After studying in Smyrna, Jakob gains his first trading experience in Craiova before turning to caravan trading and traveling to Thessaloniki and Smyrna. He comes into contact with Sabbatian circles and encounters various mystical movements, including Shiite Sufi-Bektashi and Alevis.

In 1752, Jakob marries the 14-year-old Chana, daughter of the respected Jew Jehuda Tor ha-Levi. This marriage produces two children: Lejba (later Emmanuel) and Awacza (later Ewa or Ewunia). In Thessaloniki, Jakob opens a school (Beth Midrash) in 1754, where he spreads mystical teachings and practices a dance similar to the Samā' of the Mevlevi. The first signs of his messianic ambitions become apparent.

Book III: The Book of Roads

In the third book, Gitla, a freedom-loving young woman who resists an arranged marriage, becomes Jakob Frank's bodyguard. The novel describes the journeys of Jakob and his followers through Rohatyn, Busk, and Lanckorun, as well as his arrest and later release through Ottoman intervention, as he is considered an Ottoman subject. During this phase, Jakob begins to advocate for conversion to Christianity, which attracts the interest of the Catholic clergy. His unconventional teachings, combining elements of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, gain increasing followers among Eastern European Jews.

Book IV: The Book of the Comet

Jakob Frank and his followers establish a commune in the village of Iwanie on the Dniester. This "Republic of True Believers" practices a form of communal living, sharing goods, meals, work, and even sexuality. Jakob's alleged healing powers through the laying on of hands contribute to his growing reputation.

The Frankists adopt Christian names and are supported by influential personalities such as Antoni Moliwda-Kossakowski and Katarzyna Kossakowska. A mass baptism of the Frankists takes place in the Lviv Cathedral. In parallel, the Lviv Rabbi Chaïm Kohen Rapaport writes treatises against the "heretics" and "dissidents."

A key scene is the disputation of Kaminiets, followed by a second disputation in the Cathedral of Lviv in September 1759. The Frankists fuel the ritual murder legend by accusing Jews of using Christian blood for the Passover feast. This leads to persecution and boycotts of Jewish merchants.

The conversion to Catholicism begins in 1759, when Jakob is baptized as Jozef Frank, with King August III of Poland as his godfather. The number of converts rapidly increases from 500 in 1759 to 1000 in 1760, reaching about 24,000 throughout Poland by 1790.

When it emerges that Jakob's conversion may not be sincere, he is arrested and imprisoned by the Bernardines. Nachman betrays Jakob by revealing his true intentions, believing that Jakob is losing sight of the true goal due to the temptations of success and that martyrdom could lead him back to the right path to fulfill his role as savior.

Book V: The Book of Metal and Sulfur

Jakob Frank is accused of false conversion and spreading heresy and is imprisoned in the monastery of the Częstochowa fortress. During his imprisonment, his followers come to Częstochowa to support him. Nachman and Jakob reconcile.

The imprisonment in Częstochowa becomes a mystical center: The cave beneath the fortress is associated with the Cave of Machpelah (Tomb of the Patriarchs) and the spiritual center of the world. The dead are buried here, including Chana, Jakob's wife, who dies in Częstochowa. Jakob is only released when Russian troops occupy the region.

Book VI: The Book of the Distant Land

After his release, Jakob settles with his now 18-year-old daughter Ewa in Brno, near the Dobruzka/Gutenfeld family from Prossnitz. Here, the "Brotherhood" or "Havurah" develops, and Jakob establishes the "Ladies' Service," where young women are expected, among other things, to warm his bed.

Between 1776 and 1785, Jakob joins the Freemasons on the recommendation of friends. Jakob and Ewa receive an audience with Emperor Joseph II and Maria Theresa of Austria, who favor the promotion of Jews in Austria-Hungary.

In 1786, the community moves from Brno to Offenbach am Main, where they take up residence in Isenburg Castle. The approximately 400 followers live on funds sent by members of the brotherhood from Poland and Moravia.

Jakob dies in 1791, on the same day as Gitla. Despite enormous debts, the community continues under the leadership of Jakob's daughter Ewa. She is virtually under house arrest but receives a visit from the Russian Emperor Alexander.

Book VII: The Book of Names

The last part of the novel deals with the legacy of the Frankists and the fate of their descendants. Ewa Frank protects Offenbach from Napoleonic plunder, and it is suggested what happens to Chmielowski's library.

A temporal leap leads to 1942, when five families (38 people) refuse to register as Jews with the German authorities. They flee to the cave where Jenta has found her last resting place, and survive there until April 1944, when they are notified of the German withdrawal.

The novel includes numerous historical personalities:

Jakob Frank: Born as Jakób Lejbowicz in Podolia, he sees himself as a messiah in the tradition of Kabbalists and Sabbatians. He flees the shtetl, goes to the Ottoman Empire, and calls himself Jakob Frank. He unites thousands of Eastern European Jews in his Frankist movement and inducesthem to convert to Catholicism. After his arrest and imprisonment in Częstochowa, he receives asylum in Offenbach, where he dies in 1791.

Elisha Shorr: Rabbi of Rohatyn (Ukraine), head of a Beth Misrahi school and an early follower of Jakob. He shares with Chmielowski a passion for books.

Nachman Samuel ben Lévi: Rabbi of Busk and admirer of Baal Shem Tov. He writes a biography of Sabbatai Zevi and later becomes Jakob's chronicler. Eventually, he betrays Jakob, reconciles with him, and takes the name Piotr Jakobovski.

Benedykt Chmielowski: Priest of Firlej and Dean of Rohatyn, the first Polish encyclopedist and author of "The New Athens" (1745-1746). He is interested in Jewish books and maintains a correspondence with the poet Elzbieta Druzbacka.

Katarzyna Kossakowska: Influential castellan and mistress of Elizabeta Druzbacka, who supports the Frankists, hosts them on her estates, and temporarily takes in Jakob Frank's wife and daughter.

Elzbieta Druzbacka: Baroque poet who corresponds with Chmielowski and advises him to write his works in Polish in the future for better accessibility.

Bishop Soltyk: A gambling-addicted bishop who promotes antisemitic prejudices and, after gambling losses, instigates a pogrom against the Jewish community.

This ensemble is complemented by numerous fictional characters who contribute perspectives that are often underrepresented in official historiography.

Jenta: Jakob's grandmother from Korolowka, who is put into a state between life and death through a kabbalistic ritual. She becomes an object of ongoing folk veneration.

Gitla: Daughter of the secretary of the Lviv rabbi, who resists her arranged marriage and becomes Jakob's bodyguard and lover. Later, she lives with the physician Ascher Rubin and dies on the same day as Jakob.

Jan: A repeatedly escaped serf who is found half-dead in the snow. The Jewish community rescues and cares for him, despite his facial features distorted by frostbite. Later, along with valuable books, he is delivered by Elisha Shorr and his relatives to Chmielowski, who is supposed to take care of him while the Frankists flee from persecution by the Talmudists.

Writing for Gazeta Wyborcza , Przemysław Czapliński  [pl] wrote that the novel "revolutionizes the image of religious life in the 18th century, but also changes the perception of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth."^[15]

Writing for Polityka , Justyna Sobolewska  [pl] wrote that "Tokarczuk proved that it is possible to write an over 900-page novel, full of pictorial descriptions, religious disputes and letters, which keeps you in suspense" and called it an "extremely interesting panorama of 18th-century Poland."^[16]

In regard to the historical and ideological divides of Polish literature, the novel has been characterized as anti-Sienkiewicz. It was soon acclaimed by critics and readers alike, but its reception has been hostile in some Polish nationalistic circles and Olga Tokarczuk became a target of an internet hate and harassment campaign.^{[17] [18]}

According to Book Marks, the book received "positive" reviews based on 40 critic reviews with 26 being "rave" and nine being "positive" and four being "mixed" and one being "pan".^[19] In the Mar/Apr 2022 issue of Bookmarks , a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a rating of 3.5 out of 5 based on critic reviews with a critical summary saying, "True to its title, The Books of Jacob reads like scripture: more than one critic described the novel as both dense and arcane."^[20] Globally, Complete Review saying on the consensus "Big, wide-ranging, detailed; not quite a consensus on how successful it all is".^[21]

Upon publication in the UK, the book garnered critical acclaim. In The Guardian , Marcel Theroux writes that, "[d]ense, captivating and weird, The Books of Jacob is on a different scale from either" of her previous novels translated into English. "It is a visionary novel that conforms to a particular notion of masterpiece – long, arcane and sometimes inhospitable. Tokarczuk is wrestling with the biggest philosophical themes [...]." He goes on to compare it to John Milton's Paradise Lost and concludes that the novel is one that "will be a landmark in the life of any reader with the appetite to tackle it."^[22] Anthony Cummins of The Observer writes that the book is a "panorama of early Enlightenment Europe that doubles as an open-minded study in the mysteries of charisma, it is perhaps above all – and aptly – a gargantuan act of faith, a novel in which your reading has barely begun by the time you’ve turned the last of its 900 pages."^[23] Catherine Taylor, writing for Prospect , calls The Books of Jacob an "extraordinary 1,000-page novel", comparing it to Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace and Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Of the English translation, Taylor has the following to say: "Huge credit must be given to Croft, whose magnificent, lively translation is also a work of pure scholarship: the multiple voices, styles, landscapes and inventories she renders into English bring this lost world vividly to life." Concluding, she singles out the subject of Jewish life in Poland of Frank's time as being at the core of the novel: "Tokarczuk's determination in this tremendous work to recast and restore to Poland's past its vanished Jewish culture has never been more necessary."^[24] Antonia Senior, in The Times , calls the book "a work of genius."^[25]

The Books of Jacob was awarded the 2015 Nike Award Jury prize, Poland's most prestigious literary prize.^[17] It also received Nike's Audience award for 2015.^[26]

The novel was shortlisted for the 2015 Angelus Award.^{[27] [28]}

The Swedish translation by Jan Henrik Swahn  [sv] was awarded in 2016 with the first international prize awarded by the Stockholm institution Kulturhuset Stadsteatern.^[29]

The French translation by Maryla Laurent was awarded the 2018 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature,^{[30] [31]} the 2018 Prix Transfuge for Meilleur roman européen^[32] and the 2019 Prix Laure Bataillon.^[33] It was also a finalist in the second selection for the 2018 Prix Femina étranger.^[34]

Jennifer Croft's English translation was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize.^[35]

In 2020, an audiobook adaptation was released by Wydawnictwo Literackie (ISBN 978-83-08-06994-3). It has a runtime of 40 hours and 44 minutes. The novel's seven books are narrated by seven Polish actors and actresses: Danuta Stenka, Wiktor Zborowski, Jan Peszek, Agata Kulesza, Maja Ostaszewska, Adam Ferency and Mariusz Bonaszewski  [pl].^{[36] [37]}

• 2014 Polish novels
• Novels by Olga Tokarczuk
• Polish historical novels
• Wydawnictwo Literackie books
• Frankism
• Novels set in Poland
• Novels set in Ukraine
• Books about Jews and Judaism
• Epic novels

• CS1 Polish-language sources (pl)
• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Culture articles needing translation from French Wikipedia
• Use dmy dates from October 2020
• Articles containing Polish-language text