RaveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)[A] 900-page masterpiece ... [a] brilliant translation ... The swift intercutting of these voices and vantage points supplies the narrative with pace, variety and flashes of humour. It also sustains its richness and mystery ... Despite the book’s meandering storyline, which follows the many twists of Frankism’s history, The Books of Jacob is gripping and suspenseful. Its page numbering runs in reverse, counting us down with messianic expectancy ... The complexity of gender relations, the materiality of corpses, and the crossing of borders – political, cultural, metaphysical – are key Tokarczuk themes that recur in striking ways ... The Books of Jacob is packed with minor characters and extraordinary details that have been plucked from the archives. Gaps in the historical record leave plenty of room for the author’s imagination ... Reaching the end of this dazzling book, I also felt like a devoted disciple, of Olga Tokarczuk, impatient for her to return and lead me to new imaginary realms.
