Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

I flit between literary fiction and crime fiction. I like my highbrow, all second-hand Penguin Modern Classics, and my lowbrow, all-half-inch-thick, pocket-sized books with photos of weapons on the front. But Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is that rare beast of a bona fide literary writer doing a proper genre piece.

Janina Duszejko is an elderly, retired academic living alone in the middle of the wintery, Polish countryside. Alone but not lonely, surrounded by nature, astrology, and William Blake’s words, the book captures that beautiful, haunting quality of solitude and the compromises it brings. It also… show more.

I have not read as much fiction as I would like, but this book reminded me how important imagination can be in building ideas. Tokarczuk tells a wonderful story—part mystery, part fairytale—but what really hooked me was the permission she gives for us to consider the animals in the forest as important characters.

There is no anthropomorphism, just an understanding that nonhuman animals matter. I rarely re-read books, but I dive back into this when I have time!

This book features a brilliant narrative voice. The title paraphrases William Blake’s Proverbs of Hell. Protagonist Janina’s neighbour, nicknamed Big Foot, is found dead in the first of a number of local murders as hunters become the hunted. 65-year-old Janina has a greater affinity with the local deer than the victims and their love of hunting.

It is Janina’s perspective that makes the narrative so gripping. Set in a remote Polish village, it has the pace of a thriller, and her voice combines humour with deeply troubled questions about humanity’s place in the world. On watching a pregnant woman… show more.

I remember an awards ceremony where Bjork described herself as “a musical scientist.” Most likely accepting some well-deserved award, she spoke in this odd sing-song way that made her seem genuinely like a mad scientist.

I think Olga Tokarczuk is a bit like Bjork. Her voice is utterly unique, with a texture and humor perfectly suited to this book's marvelous protagonist. I loved Janina Dusezjko, a cranky old Polish woman wandering the hills of her village trying to solve a mystery. I could have listened to her for the whole book even if there was no mystery, so the unraveling… show more.

Serial murders in rural Silesia form the backbone of this cunning mystery novel and the backdrop to a self-portrait of a wise, eccentric, opinionated old bag who turns out to be not only quite charming but extraordinarily devious.

Almost completely devoid of sex and drugs, the story mixes lessons in astrology with an impassioned engagement with the poetry of William Blake and resumes his campaign to respect the lives of animals. Crammed full of witty observations of human beastliness, Drive Your Plow is an unusually accomplished detective story, a first-rate animal rights manifesto, and a defense of a person’s right… show more.

This book is a wild ride, start to finish, and there is nothing I could write that would prepare any reader for it. I wasn’t prepared when I picked it up.

It opens with a conventional-enough discovery of a murder victim. From there, there’s astrology, William Blake, animal rights, mushroom foraging, feminism, violence, beauty, and small-town politics in an overwintering resort town on the Polish-Czech border.

The narrator’s voice is utterly unique: if she walked into my house, I’d know her right away. And I’d be slightly alarmed and thrilled, exactly how I felt while reading this transcendent, angry, funny… show more.

An atmospheric, taut, and stylish novel – it was first published in 2009 in Poland and written by a clinical psychologist who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2018.

It has an atmospheric setting in rural Silesia. You can feel the glistening dampness of the forest where the main character, Janina, has a shack. This intriguing woman, a virtual hermit, places value only on poetry, astrology, and animal welfare. The forest is all around; claustrophobic and threatening.

In the few homes near the shack, people are being killed. Janina’s response is to immerse herself even deeper in the works… show more.

Janina is an older Polish woman. She speaks her mind—even if few listen—foments conflict and spends her days translating the poetry of William Blake and studying astrology, which she believes underlies everything. How could I not fall under her spell? But it was her deep affinity and affection for animals, even beyond that for her fellow humans—far beyond—that made me walk beside her in sympathy. When the dead bodies start piling up, all men, she utterly convinces me that these are acts of revenge, not by humans, but by animals on the local hunters. 

This is an intriguing murder mystery set in the evocative Winter landscape of the Silesia Region of Poland, close to the Czech Border. When Janina’s two pet dogs go missing, a murderous chain of events begins. The eccentric and feisty Janina is funny and warm and cantankerous – I love how she stands up for what she believes in, taking on her neighbours and haranguing the police and bureaucrats.

This is a murder mystery but it is still about listening. And who is murdering whom, anyway? Told in the person of an eccentric Polish recluse, Janina, this book had me rooting for strange outcomes. The very earth is listening to us dangerous humans and cannot be silent anymore. Part ode to William Blake, part naturalist's hymn, part the demented story of a possible crackpot (or saint), this book's warp and weft are grief and listening.