The Book of All Books

A book that begins before Adam and ends after us. In this magisterial work by the Italian intellectual superstar Roberto Calasso, figures of the Bible and its whole outline emerge in a new light: one that is often astonishing and disquieting, as indeed—more than any other—is the book from which they originate

Roberto Calasso's The Book of All Books is a narration that moves through the Bible as if through a forest, where every branch—every verse—may offer some revelation. Where a man named Saul can become the first king of a people because his father had sent him off to search for some donkeys that had gone astray. Where the queen of a remote African realm spends three years leading a long caravan of young men and girls dressed in purple, as well as animals and carrying quantities of spices, in answer to an invitation from the king of Jerusalem and to ask him certain questions. And where a man named Abraham heard these words from a divine voice: “Go away from your land, from your kindred and from the house of your father toward the land that I will tell you.” Words that reverberate throughout the Bible, a story about a separation and a promise, followed by many other separations and promises. The Book of All Books is the tenth part of a work in progress, in many ways parallel to the second part, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. There, gods and heroes of the Greek myths revealed new physiognomies, whereas here many figures of the Bible and its whole outline emerge in a new light: one that is often astonishing and disquieting, as indeed—more than any other—is the book from which they originate.