Jacob's Room

Jacob’s Room is a linear novel concerning the life of Jacob Flanders, a fictional character whose life spans from approximately 1988 to 1914. It is written in the past tense. The novel begins during Jacob’s early childhood. Jacob’s mother, Elizabeth “Betty” Flanders, takes her three sons to Cornwall, England in the wake of her husband’s death. The novel moves ahead to Jacob’s time in university. Jacob attends the University of Cambridge, thus residing outside Scarborough for the first time in his life. The novel ends with a scene of Betty Flanders and Richard Bionomy distraughtly clearing out Jacob’s London apartment in the wake of Jacob’s death.