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.