Description

‘Beautiful, intellectually thrilling . . . unlike anything else’ Telegraph

Promise and separation. Grace and guilt. The chosen and the damned. Roberto Calasso’s captivating retelling of key stories from the bible evokes the dramatic world of the Old Testament and casts one of the founding texts of Western civilization in an astonishing – and disquieting – new light.

The Book of All Books is the culmination of a lifetime’s work and the tenth part of a series that began with The Ruin of Kasch.

‘Engaging . . . enlightening’ Financial Times

‘Surprising . . . vivid’ Spectator

Publisher Review

Beautiful, intellectually thrilling, and possessed of a kind of empyrean wryness that makes it unlike anything else . . . And, thanks in part to the heroic patience and skill of translator Tim Parks, it is often straightforwardly enjoyable and funny -- Tim Smith-Laing * The Telegraph * Engaging . . . Calasso links the tales with reflections on sacrifice, election, evil, separation and redemption - losing, enlightening and perfecting himself in the process -- Nick Spencer * Financial Times * An attractive and approachable reworking . . . highly artful . . . seeks to link mythological thinking with the culture of modernity in Europe . . . biblical stories are often enriched by attractive details from later Jewish legends -- John Barton * Times Literary Supplement * Calasso is among those rare people who can persuade you that it is still possible to grasp almost the whole of human culture . . . his selection is cunning and his narrative gifts considerable -- Stephen Greenblatt * The New York Times * An intriguing and ingenious book . . . lucid and clever without being arcane or simplistic . . . each and every page has an observation, a turn of phrase or a close reading that made me think "I never thought of that" . . . -- Stuart Kelly * Scotsman * Beguiling, surprising . . . vividness and wide-ranging erudition . . . his version of the biblical story is enhanced by its frequent forays into ancient Near Eastern mythology as well as into its Indian analogues -- Robert Alter * Spectator * Illuminates the drama of Goethe's 'book of all books' - the Old testament - in intriguing and provocative ways -- Ian Thompson * Tablet * Calasso . . . once again muses eloquently on the Bible in this 10th entry in his series dedicated to exploring ancient myths and the human search for meaning . . . Readers with any level of biblical knowledge will benefit from Calasso's far-ranging insights * Publishers Weekly *