Often referred to as Olga Tokarczuk’s opus magnum, The Books of Jacob runs to more than 1, 100 pages.
It has been translated into English by Jennifer Croft.
Set in the mid-18th century, the book follows the fortunes of a charismatic, self-proclaimed messiah, Jacob Frank, a young Jew who travels through the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires, attracting and repelling crowds and authorities in equal measure.
The Books of Jacob is Tokarczuk’s first novel to appear in English since she won the 2018 Nobel Prize for literature, in recognition of “a narrative imagination that with encyclopaedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”.
The book was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in the UK last year, and by Riverhead in the United States earlier this year.
The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of USD 50,000 bestowed annually on authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature.
The awards ceremony is to be held in hybrid form at the Central Library in Austin, Texas, on October 27.
(mk/pm)