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The Books of Jacob AI simulator
(@The Books of Jacob_simulator)
Hub AI
The Books of Jacob AI simulator
(@The Books of Jacob_simulator)
The Books of Jacob
The Books of Jacob (Polish: Księgi Jakubowe) is an epic historical novel by Olga Tokarczuk, published by Wydawnictwo Literackie in October 2014. It is Tokarczuk's ninth novel and is the product of extensive historical research, taking her seven years to write.
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. 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.
Upon publication, it was an instant best-seller and won Poland's most prestigious literary prize, the Nike Award. By October 2015, the novel's circulation had reached 100,000 copies. When Tokarczuk was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel Committee said that it was "very impressed" by The Books of Jacob. An English translation by Jennifer Croft was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions on 15 November 2021. Croft won a 2015 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for The Books of Jacob. A US publication by Riverhead Books was released on 1 February 2022.
The extensive historical novel 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 Books of Jacob
The Books of Jacob (Polish: Księgi Jakubowe) is an epic historical novel by Olga Tokarczuk, published by Wydawnictwo Literackie in October 2014. It is Tokarczuk's ninth novel and is the product of extensive historical research, taking her seven years to write.
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. 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.
Upon publication, it was an instant best-seller and won Poland's most prestigious literary prize, the Nike Award. By October 2015, the novel's circulation had reached 100,000 copies. When Tokarczuk was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Nobel Committee said that it was "very impressed" by The Books of Jacob. An English translation by Jennifer Croft was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions on 15 November 2021. Croft won a 2015 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for The Books of Jacob. A US publication by Riverhead Books was released on 1 February 2022.
The extensive historical novel 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