Olga Tokarczuk: Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead (Paperback, 2018, Text Publishing Company)
Paperback, 256 pages
English language
Published Dec. 17, 2018 by Text Publishing Company.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Polish: Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych) is a 2009 mystery novel by Olga Tokarczuk. Originally published in Polish by Wydawnictwo Literackie, it was later translated to English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones and published in 2018 by the British independent publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions. The book received a wider release in 2019 when it was published in the United States by Riverhead Books on 13 August 2019. A portion of the English translation was originally published in literary magazine Granta in 2017.The novel was shortlisted for the 2019 International Booker Prize. Antonia Lloyd-Jones' translation was also longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Tokarczuk was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature two months after the novel's US release. In 2020, it was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Polish: Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych) is a 2009 mystery novel by Olga Tokarczuk. Originally published in Polish by Wydawnictwo Literackie, it was later translated to English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones and published in 2018 by the British independent publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions. The book received a wider release in 2019 when it was published in the United States by Riverhead Books on 13 August 2019. A portion of the English translation was originally published in literary magazine Granta in 2017.The novel was shortlisted for the 2019 International Booker Prize. Antonia Lloyd-Jones' translation was also longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Tokarczuk was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature two months after the novel's US release. In 2020, it was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.
Neither the plot nor the characters were interesting to me. The writing is nice and I liked some of the Blake quotes but I'm sure I won't remember this book a year from now.
Neither the plot nor the characters were interesting to me. The writing is nice and I liked some of the Blake quotes but I'm sure I won't remember this book a year from now.
The back of the book said it's a thriller but even thought the narrative revolves around a murder mystery, what was really captivating about this tale is the main character. There is nothing truly like her: A vegetarian old lady, a weirdo that never ceases to surprise the reader by exposing new, strange, sides to her. It with the force of this magnetic leading persona that Tokarczuk - like Yuki Urushibara, Monica Bryne and a few other writers of our times - succeeds in discussing one of the main issues of our time - namely, man's relation to nature and the harm he inflicts on it. It is done in a tone that is just the right amount of preachy and somber, but is also humorous and light at times. Brilliant piece.
The back of the book said it's a thriller but even thought the narrative revolves around a murder mystery, what was really captivating about this tale is the main character. There is nothing truly like her: A vegetarian old lady, a weirdo that never ceases to surprise the reader by exposing new, strange, sides to her. It with the force of this magnetic leading persona that Tokarczuk - like Yuki Urushibara, Monica Bryne and a few other writers of our times - succeeds in discussing one of the main issues of our time - namely, man's relation to nature and the harm he inflicts on it. It is done in a tone that is just the right amount of preachy and somber, but is also humorous and light at times. Brilliant piece.
