Kate learns that her daughter, Amelia, has been suspended from school. Upon her arrival, she finds the school surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump.

Kate learns that her daughter, Amelia, has been suspended from school. Upon her arrival, she finds the school surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump.

Frances Irvine, left destitute in the wake of her father’s sudden death, has been forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Southern Cape of Africa. 1880 South Africa is a country torn apart by greed. In this remote and inhospitable land, she becomes entangled with two very different men --- one driven by ambition, the other by his ideals.

Frances Irvine, left destitute in the wake of her father’s sudden death, has been forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Southern Cape of Africa. 1880 South Africa is a country torn apart by greed. In this remote and inhospitable land, she becomes entangled with two very different men --- one driven by ambition, the other by his ideals.

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. More than 200 years later, Jacob is amazed to find himself reincarnated as a fly in the Long Island suburbs of 21st-century America. 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.

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. More than 200 years later, Jacob is amazed to find himself reincarnated as a fly in the Long Island suburbs of 21st-century America. 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.

JACOB’S FOLLY is a rollicking, ingenious, saucy book, brimful of sparkling, unexpected characters, that takes on 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 the unique lens of Jacob’s consciousness, Rebecca Miller explores change in all its different guises --- personal, spiritual, literal. The hold of the past on the present, the power of private hopes and dreams, the collision of fate and free will: Miller’s world --- which is our own, transfigured by her clear gaze and by her sharp, surprising wit --- comes brilliantly to life in the pages of this profoundly original novel.

Professor David Ullman doesn’t believe in demons, though his extensive knowledge of the literature of the demonic --- especially Milton’s PARADISE LOST --- has won him wide acclaim. When he is lured to Venice on a mysterious journey, he loses his 12-year-old daughter to an ancient evil that will force him to come face to face with all he knows about the underworld and the faith required to defeat it.

Professor David Ullman doesn’t believe in demons, though his extensive knowledge of the literature of the demonic --- especially Milton’s PARADISE LOST --- has won him wide acclaim. When he is lured to Venice on a mysterious journey, he loses his 12-year-old daughter to an ancient evil that will force him to come face to face with all he knows about the underworld and the faith required to defeat it.

Fans of THE HISTORIAN won’t be able to put down this spellbinding literary horror story in which a Columbia professor must use his knowledge of demonic mythology to rescue his daughter from the Underworld.

Professor David Ullman is among the world’s leading authorities on demonic literature, with special expertise in Milton’s PARADISE LOST. Not that David is a believer --- he sees what he teaches as a branch of the imagination and nothing more. So when the mysterious Thin Woman arrives at his office and invites him to travel to Venice and witness a “phenomenon,” he turns her down. She leaves plane tickets and an address on his desk, advising David that her employer is not often disappointed.

That evening, David’s wife announces she is leaving him. With his life suddenly in shambles, he impulsively whisks his beloved twelve-year-old daughter, Tess, off to Venice after all. The girl has recently been stricken by the same melancholy moods David knows so well, and he hopes to cheer her up and distract them both from the troubles at home.

But what happens in Venice will change everything.

First, in a tiny attic room at the address provided by the Thin Woman, David sees a man restrained in a chair, muttering, clearly insane… but could he truly be possessed? Then the man speaks clearly, in the voice of David’s dead father, repeating the last words he ever spoke to his son. Words that have left scars --- and a mystery --- behind.

When David rushes back to the hotel, he discovers Tess perched on the roof’s edge, high above the waters of the Grand Canal. Before she falls, she manages to utter a final plea: Find me.

What follows is an unimaginable journey for David Ullman from skeptic to true believer. In a terrifying quest guided by symbols and riddles from the pages of PARADISE LOST, David must track the demon that has captured his daughter and discover its name. If he fails, he will lose Tess forever.