A young Jewish man proclaims himself the new messiah in 18th Century Poland

The Books Of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk tells the story of Jacob Frank, who came from a family of Sephardic Jews amongst whom was the popular belief that in the future the messiah will come. Jacob's charisma and enigmatic personality enabled him to form a group of followers and pretty soon he convinced himself he was the new messiah. Jacob's journey from poor Jewish merchant to inhabitant of the great palace in Germany as a Polish aristocrat was so compelling it took Olga Tokarczuk over a thousand pages and eight years to describe it.