Of all the messianic leaders in world history, Jacob Frank--the subject of The Books of Jacob by 2018 Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk (Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead)--is one that contemporary readers are unlikely to know. Published in Polish in 2014 and now available in an English translation by Jennifer Croft, this magnificent novel, which spans three decades of the 18th century and coincides with the life of a "young man named Mozart," is Tokarczuk's fictional account of Frank, who claimed to be the Messiah. Like all charmers, Frank attracted acolytes and enemies. He converted to Islam and then Catholicism, counseling followers to do the same: "You have to go into the darkness... salvation awaits us only in darkness."
At more than 900 pages, the novel contains dozens of beautifully drawn characters. Paramount among them, aside from Frank himself, are Yente--a frail woman who "didn't exactly die" during a wedding at the novel's start, yet who, in one of many surreal touches, hovers between life and the next world, witness to the narrative proceedings--and Moliwda, a Polish count and polyglot attracted to Judaism and to Frank, the latter in more ways than one. Tokarczuk addresses themes of racism--a bishop incensed by Jewish materiality wants to "get rid of the Jews"--and the dangers of following a charismatic leader. The Swedish Academy singled out this work in Tokarczuk's Nobel citation and, thanks to this sterling translation, English-language readers will discover why. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer