Jacob's Folly

By: Rebecca Miller

Narrated by: Adam Sims

From the author of the Richard and Judy best seller The Private Lives of Pippa Lee comes a brilliantly original novel about desire, faith, love, acting – and reincarnation. In 18th-century Paris, Jacob Cerf is a Jew, a peddler of knives, saltcellars, and snuffboxes. Despite a disastrous teenage marriage, he is determined to raise himself up in life, by whatever means he can.

More than 200 years later, Jacob is amazed to find himself reincarnated as a fly in the Long Island suburbs of 21st-century America, his new life twisted in ways he could never have imagined. But even the tiniest of insects can influence the turning of the world, and thanks to his arrival, the lives of a reliable volunteer fireman and a young Orthodox Jewish woman nursing a secret ambition will never be the same.

Through her wonderfully memorable protagonist, Rebecca Miller considers the hold of the past on the present, the power of private hopes and dreams, and the collision of fate and free will. InJacob's Folly, Miller's world - which is our own, transfigured by her clear gaze and by her sharp, surprising wit - comes spectacularly to life.

Rebecca Miller is the author of the short-story collection Personal Velocity, her feature-film adaptation of which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which she also adapted for the screen. Her other films include Angela and The Ballad of Jack and Rose. She is married to the actor Daniel Day Lewis and lives in New York and Ireland.

©2013 Rebecca Miller (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

'Rebecca Miller has landed on a narrative voice that’s antique, droll, racy and occasionally cutting - imagine an 18th century French rake being played by David Niven… Delightful, bawdy, detailed and complicated. (Carolyn Kellogg, The Los Angeles Times)

'Thanks to Rebecca Miller’s densely detailed prose, such a transformation seems quite believable, propelling Jacob’s Folly on its own strange and often wonderful flight… Miller’s vivid writing captures both [Jacob and Masha’s] worldviews with a wit and restraint that underlines their essential differences, as well as their similarities.' (Clea Simon, Boston Globe)

'Scads of narrative threads are sewn together with impressive and often lovely wordplay to form a vast historical fabric of Jacob’s Jewish family. [Miller] is so clever when dwelling in the mind and body of that insect that the reader is rarely exasperated. An unusual and absorbing read.' (Publishers Weekly)

Very interesting and clever

Very interesting. The story was told from a very surprising point of view. We picked this book to read for our book club - I was not disappointed.

Where Do I Begin?

This is a tangle of plotlines, only one of which has any meaning or depth, and once the author was tired of that one, she dispatched it in haste. The premise of the book was intriguing—a man reincarnated as a fly observes the lives of people around him, but otherwise, this book is a mess. I expected something to pull the pieces together and make my investment of time worthwhile, but the attempt at the end was flimsy and flat. Don’t bother.