Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
"A brilliant literary murder mystery." —Chicago Tribune
"Extraordinary. Tokarczuk's novel is funny, vivid, dangerous, and disturbing, and it raises some fierce questions about human behavior. My sincere admiration for her brilliant work." —Annie Proulx
In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . .
A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?
Loved by our collective!
I read a lot of Agatha Christie when I was younger and became a huge fan of the 'underestimated elder entangled in a murder mystery' trope. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead takes this Miss Marple-esque character and twists her into someone more shrewd, strange, and clairvoyant than any of the other characters, or even the reader, anticipates. Set in a snowy Polish village, this Nobel Prize winning novel is the perfect winter read, grappling with predetermination, comeuppance, and our responsibility to the natural world.
Content Warnings: Somewhat gruesome deaths, animal abuse mentions, bugs
Product Details
- Paperback
- 288 pages
- ISBN
- 9780525541349
- Publisher
- Riverhead Books (8/11/20)
- Dimensions
- 5.1 x 8 x 0.7 inches
- Tags
Tags
mystery, nobel prize, poland, works in translation