Books of Jacob | II. Book of Sand, Chapter 11
"for she would not be saved while he would live eternally"
“But in reality, there was a chasm between them that could never be filled, a chasm so deep that it reached clear to the center of the earth, maybe even farther. It would be hard to explain it in words. To say she was a Jew, and he a Christian? That wasn’t it. That meant very little. At its heart it was that they represented two types of people, which at first glance no one could see, two human beings similar to one another but diametrically opposed: for she would not be saved, while he would live eternally.”
(Tokarczuk, Books of Jacob, p. 748)
The he who would be saved in this passage is Moliwda (Antoni Kossakowski) who we met last week.
The she who would not be saved is Malka, the focal character of this week’s slow read.
In chapter 11 Antoni Kossakowski meets Jacob in Craiova (current day Romania) in 1753. He had been attracted by stories of a holy fool, who is Jacob. In Craiova he meets his old friends, Reb Mordke and Nahman, who introduce him to Jacob. Then we learn Moliwda’s back story in Poland, and why he might be fleeing his homeland.
He was born to a wealthy family and taken in by his uncle, who sent him to a chancellery to be educated. However, he was kicked out and sent to live with his mother’s family to be taught how to run the small estate. There he had a love affair with a peasant Jewish woman, named Malka. She became pregnant; they eloped but their marriage was doomed. He would live eternally. She would not be saved. The story breaks off with Kossakowski and Malka’s flight to Lithuania. This story will return later in the novel. He haunts Moliwda.
Moliwda, Jacob, Mordechai and Nahman discuss religion and philosophy, suspicions of espionage, a story about an extraordinary ring, and the life of the heretical, egalitarian sect of the Bogomils among whom Moliwda spent some of his happiest days.
For paid subscribers below I have some additional sources and notes to enrich your Slow Read.
chat question - an opportunity to provide your feedback on the Slow Read as we are one-third of the way through
character - Malka
context - historical context on the Bogomils described on pages 740-735.
If you have not already done so, please upgrade your subscription, and read on to get more from your Slow Read of The Books of Jacob. And my voiceover of this post!
