Our Book of the Week is monumental both in scope and in content. Nobel Prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk's novel The Books of Jacob surrounds the historical figure of Jacob Frank, whose iconoclastic mysticism saw him either condemned as a heretic by the establishment or lauded as a messiah by his various Jewish, Islamic or Catholic followers, with a vast cloud of often bizarre historical detail, demonstrating the Enlightenment as a pivotal period in the development of many of the social, intellectual and aesthetic ills that have beset Europe since and also now. Tokarczuk is against fixity, limitation, authority and prejudice, and her magnum opus is an exhilarating and transforming experience. 

>>Wrestling with the biggest philosophical themes. 

>>A kind of optimism.

>>Purification through transgression. 

>>The Collection of the Words of the Lord. 

>>"I have too many ideas." 

>>Jennifer Croft on translating the book.

>>Even the simplest words have secrets. 

>>Fulfilling the mission. 

>>An interview with translator Jennifer Croft. 

>>Some texts. 
>>Buy the Text edition (above left).

>>Buy the Fitzcarraldo edition (above right).

>>Other books by Olga Tokarczuk. 
>>Where to start.