The Books of Jacob
Olga Tokarczuk
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Nobel Prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk’s richest and most ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across eighteenth-century Europe.
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, then Catholicism, is pilloried as a heretic, 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.
For my parents
I. THE BOOK OF FOG
1.
1752, Rohatyn
2.
Of calamitous leaf springs and Katarzyna Kossakowska’s feminine complaint
Of bloodstained silks
The white end of the table at Starosta ?ab?cki’s
3.
Of Asher Rubin and his gloomy thoughts
The beehive, or: The home of the Shorr family in Rohatyn
In the beth midrash
Yente, or: Not a good time to die
What we read in the Zohar
Of the swallowed amulet
4.
Pharo and Mariage
Polonia est paradisus Judaeorum
Of the presbytery in Firlejów and the sinful pastor living in it
Father Chmielowski tries to write a letter to Mrs. Dru?backa
El?bieta Dru?backa writes to Father Chmielowski
Bishop Kajetan So?tyk writes a letter to the papal nuncio
Zelik
II. THE BOOK OF SAND
5.
Of how the world was born of God’s exhaustion
Scraps, or: A story born of travel’s exhaustion, by Nahman Samuel ben Levi, Rabbi of Busk. Where I come from My youth
Of the caravan, and how I met Reb Mordke
My return to Podolia, and a strange vision
On an expedition with Mordechai to Smyrna, due to a dream of goat droppings
6.
Of a strange wedding guest in white stockings and sandals
Nahman’s Tale: Jacob’s first mention
Isohar’s School, and who God really is: The next installment in the story of Nahman ben Levi of Busk
Of Jacob the simpleton and taxes
Of Nahman’s appearance to Nahman, or: The pit of darkness and the seed of light
Of stones and the runaway with the horrible face
Of how Nahman winds up with Yente and falls asleep on the floor by her bed
Of Yente’s onward wanderings through time
Of the terrible consequences of the amulet’s disappearance
What the Zohar says
Pesel’s tale of the Podhajce goat and the strange grass
Father Chmielowski writes a letter to Mrs. Dru?backa, whom he holds in such high esteem, in January 1753, from Firlejów
7.
Yente’s story
8.
Honey, and not eating too much of it, or: Isohar’s school in Smyrna, in the Turkish land
Scraps: What we were doing in Smyrna in the Jewish year 5511 and how we met Moliwda, and also, how the spirit is like a needle that pokes a hole in the world
9.
Of the wedding in Nikopol, the mystery under the huppah, and the advantages of being foreign
In Craiova: Of trade on holy days and of Hershel, faced with the dilemma of the cherries
Of a pearl and Hana
10.
Who the person is who gathers herbs on Mount Athos
11.
How in the town of Craiova Moliwda-Kossakowski runs into Jacob
The story of His Lordship Moliwda, or Antoni Kossakowski, of the ?lepowron coat of arms, which is also known as Korwin
Of what draws persons together, and certain clarifications regarding the transmigration of souls
Jacob’s story about the ring
Scraps: What we saw among Moliwda’s Bogomils
12.
Of Jacob’s expedition to the grave of Nathan of Gaza
Of how Nahman follows in Jacob’s footsteps
Of how Jacob faces off with the Antichrist
The appearance of ruah haKodesh, when the spirit descends into man
Of why Salonika does not care for Jacob
Scraps: Of the curse of Salonika and Jacob’s molting
Scraps: Of triangles and crosses
Scraps: Of meeting Jacob’s father in Roman, and also of the starosta and the thief
Of Jacob’s dance
III. THE BOOK OF THE ROAD
13.
Of the warm December of 1755, otherwise known as the month of Tevet 5516, of the country of Polin, and pestilence in Mielnica
What is gleaned by the sharp gaze of every variety of spy
“Three things are too wondrous for me; the fourth I can’t understand.” —Book of Proverbs 30:18
The Lord’s female guardians
Scraps by Nahman of Busk kept secret from Jacob
Of secret acts in Lanckoroń and an unfavorable eye
How Gershon caught the heretics
Of the Polish princess Gitla Pinkasówna
Of Pinkas and his shameful despair
14.
Of the Bishop of Kamieniec Miko?aj Dembowski, who doesn’t realize he is merely passing through this whole affair
Of Father Chmielowski’s defense of his good name before the bishop
What El?bieta Dru?backa writes to Father Chmielowski in February of 1756 from Rzemień on the Wis?oka
Father Chmielowski to El?bieta Dru?backa
What Pinkas records, and what goes unrecorded
Of the Seder HaHerem, or the order of the curse
Of Yente, who is always present and sees all
The Bishop of Kamieniec Miko?aj Dembowski writes a letter to the papal nuncio Serra, while his secretary adds a little something from himself
Bishop Dembowski writes to Bishop So?tyk
Meanwhile
How Gitla’s stepmother’s pessimistic predictions come true
15.
How the old minaret in Kamieniec turns into a column with the Holy Mother on top
What Bishop Dembowski ponders as his face is being shaved
Of Hayah’s two natures
The shapes of the new letters
Of Krysa and his plans for the future
16.
Of the year 1757 and of the establishment of certain age-old truths over the summer at the Kamieniec Podolski disputation
Of burning books
Of Father Pikulski’s explanation to the nobles of the rules of gematria
Of newly appointed Archbishop Dembowski, who is preparing for a journey
Of the life of dead Yente in the winter of 1757, also known as the year the Talmud was burned, followed by the books of those who burned the Talmud
Of Asher Rubin’s adventures with light, and his grandfather’s with a wolf
Of the Polish princess in Asher Rubin’s house
Of the reversal of circumstances: Katarzyna Kossakowska writes to Bishop Kajetan So?tyk
Pompa funebris: January 29, 1758
Of spilled blood and hungry leeches
Mrs. El?bieta Dru?backa to Father Chmielowski, or: Of the perfection of imprecise forms