Jurek Becker first imagined Jacob the Liar as a screenplay, "Jakob der Lügner," in 1965, intended for production by the East German state-sponsored film studio, Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA). However, DEFA rejected "Jakob der Lügner" due, perhaps, to its unprecedented centering of the Jewish experience and Jewish persecution during the Holocaust. Upset at the script being turned down, Becker turned "Jakob der Lügner" into a novel, also called Jakob der Lügner, which was first published in 1969 by Aufbau Verlag. The success of the novel inspired DEFA and the East German television broadcaster, Deutscher Fernsehfunk, to create a filmed version of Jakob der Lügner. The result was also a success, becoming the only East German film ever to receive a nomination for an Academy Award. In 1999, the film was adapted by Peter Kassovitz into an English version starring Robin Williams. Becker's novel was first translated into English in 1975 by Melvin Kornfield, though without any input from Becker himself. Leila Vannewitz's later translation, which had Becker's approval, was published in the United States in 1996.
Jacob the Liar tells the story of a Jewish shop owner named Jacob Heym, who is forced into the ghetto of Łódź, Poland by Nazi forces during World War II. One day Jacob is sent to the military office, where he hears a radio bulletin reporting on the advance of Russian troops toward the ghetto. Jacob begins to lie to the other inhabitants of the ghetto by telling them he heard this information through a banned radio. He continues to invent further developments in the war until he is known throughout the ghetto for his "radio," leading to a situation in which Jacob is trapped by his own deception.
The novel is recognized for its comic tone and clear narrative voice. As Sander L. Gilman writes, Jacob the Liar defied the dominant literary methods of its period by eschewing "simple pathos as a way of understanding the events of the Shoah." The text's unnamed narrator uses humor to honestly depict the brutal events that transpire in the ghetto. Additionally, the novel relies on the narrative strategies of Jewish storytellers, to whom Becker was exposed at a young age in East Germany. Gregory Baer points in particular to Becker's text's "linear nature and distinct vocal quality," which may be inspired in part by the storytelling styles of Sholem Aliechem and Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Jacob the Liar was awarded the Heinrich-Mann Prize and the Charles Veillon Prize, among other awards, and Leila Vannewitz's 1996 translation earned the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize.
