Reviews
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation shortlist, 2019 "A marvelously weird and fablelike mystery. . . . Authors with Tokarczuk's vending machine of phrasing . . . and gimlet eye for human behavior. . . are rarely also masters of pacing and suspense. But even as Tokarczuk sticks landing after landing . . . her asides are never desultory or a liability. They are more like little cuts -- quick, exacting and purposefully belated in their bleeding. . . . This book is not a mere whodunit: It's a philosophical fairy tale about life and death that's been trying to spill its secrets. Secrets that, if you've kept your ear to the ground, you knew in your bones all along." -- New York Times Book Review "While it adopts the straightforward structure of a murder mystery, [the book features] macabre humor and morbid philosophical interludes [that] are distinctive to its author. . . [and an] excellent payoff at the finale. . . . As for Ms. Tokarczuk, there's no doubt: She's a gifted, original writer, and the appearance of her novels in English is a welcome development." -- The Wall Street Journal "Drive Your Plow is exhilarating in a way that feels fierce and private, almost inarticulable; it's one of the most existentially refreshing novels I've read in a long time." -- The New Yorker " A paean to nature. . . a sort of ode to Blake. . . [and] a lament. . . Does Tokarczuk transcend Blake? Arguable --perhaps." -- NPR "A brilliant literary murder mystery." - Chicago Tribune " A winding, imaginative, genre-defying story. Part murder mystery, part fairy tale, Drive Your Plow is a thrilling philosophical examination of the ways in which some living creatures are privileged above others." - TIME "Shimmering with subversive brilliance . . . . this is not your conventional crime story--for Tokarczuk is not your conventional writer. Through her extraordinary talent and intellect, and her 'thinking novels,' she ponders and tackles larger ecological and political issues. The stakes are always high; Tokarczuk repeatedly rises to the occasion and raises a call to arms."-- HuffPost "Sometimes the opening sentence of a first-person narrative can so vividly capture the personality of its speaker that you immediately want to spend all the time you can in their company. That's the case with . . . Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead . . . [a] barbed and subversive tale about what it takes to challenge the complacency of the powers that be." -- Boston Globe "Bewitching. . .. Serious crosscurrents ... explore everything from animal rights to predetermination to the way society stigmatizes and marginalizes those it considers mad, strange or simply different . . . Tokarczuk is capable of miracles and ensures that this extraordinary novel soars." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune "Sardonic humour and gothic plot-twists add a layer of macabre rustic comedy." - The Economist "One of the funniest books of the year." - The Guardian "Written with humor, charm, and a great talent for mystery ... a sharp, memorable alternative to those dime-a-dozen beach bag potboilers without losing any of the whodunnit appeal." -- Town & Country, Named a best book of 2019 by TIME , NPR, Kirkus , Publishers Weekly , and BookRiot . PEN America Translation Prize longlist Warwick Prize for Women in Translation shortlist "A marvelously weird and fablelike mystery. . . . Authors with Tokarczuk's vending machine of phrasing . . . and gimlet eye for human behavior. . . are rarely also masters of pacing and suspense. But even as Tokarczuk sticks landing after landing . . . her asides are never desultory or a liability. They are more like little cuts -- quick, exacting and purposefully belated in their bleeding. . . . This book is not a mere whodunit: It's a philosophical fairy tale about life and death that's been trying to spill its secrets. Secrets that, if you've kept your ear to the ground, you knew in your bones all along." -- New York Times Book Review "While it adopts the straightforward structure of a murder mystery, [the book features] macabre humor and morbid philosophical interludes [that] are distinctive to its author. . . [and an] excellent payoff at the finale. . . . As for Ms. Tokarczuk, there's no doubt: She's a gifted, original writer, and the appearance of her novels in English is a welcome development." -- The Wall Street Journal "Drive Your Plow is exhilarating in a way that feels fierce and private, almost inarticulable; it's one of the most existentially refreshing novels I've read in a long time." -- The New Yorker " A paean to nature. . . a sort of ode to Blake. . . [and] a lament. . . Does Tokarczuk transcend Blake? Arguable --perhaps." -- NPR "A brilliant literary murder mystery." - Chicago Tribune " A winding, imaginative, genre-defying story. Part murder mystery, part fairy tale, Drive Your Plow is a thrilling philosophical examination of the ways in which some living creatures are privileged above others." - TIME "Shimmering with subversive brilliance . . . . this is not your conventional crime story--for Tokarczuk is not your conventional writer. Through her extraordinary talent and intellect, and her 'thinking novels,' she ponders and tackles larger ecological and political issues. The stakes are always high; Tokarczuk repeatedly rises to the occasion and raises a call to arms."-- HuffPost "Sometimes the opening sentence of a first-person narrative can so vividly capture the personality of its speaker that you immediately want to spend all the time you can in their company. That's the case with . . . Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead . . . [a] barbed and subversive tale about what it takes to challenge the complacency of the powers that be." -- Boston Globe "Bewitching. . .. Serious crosscurrents ... explore everything from animal rights to predetermination to the way society stigmatizes and marginalizes those it considers mad, strange or simply different . . . Tokarczuk is capable of miracles and ensures that this extraordinary novel soars." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune "Sardonic humour and gothic plot-twists add a layer of macabre rustic comedy." - The Economist "One of the funniest books of the year." - The Guardian "Written with humor, charm, and a great talent for mystery ... a sharp, memorable alternative to those dime-a-dozen beach bag potboilers without losing any of the whodunnit appeal." -- Town & Country, "Drive Your Plow is exhilarating in a way that feels fierce and private, almost inarticulable; it's one of the most existentially refreshing novels I've read in a long time." -Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker " A dark and fun mystery, a feminist comedy, a primer on existentialism, and a weirdly perfect summer read." - LitHub "A riot of quirkiness and eccentricity, and the mood of the book, which shifts from droll humor to melancholy to gentle vulnerability, is unclassifiable--and just right. Tokarczuk's mercurial prose seems capable of just about anything. Like the prizewinning Flights , this novel resists the easy conventions of the contemporary work of fiction. In her depictions of her characters and their worlds--both internal and external--Tokarczuk has created something entirely new." - Kirkus Reviews (starred) "A suspenseful murder mystery and a powerful and profound meditation on human existence and how a life fits into the world around it. Novels this thrilling don't come along very often." - Publisher's Weekly (starred) "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 "Sardonic humour and gothic plot-twists add a layer of macabre rustic comedy." - The Economist "One of the funniest books of the year." - The Guardian "Tokarczuk's prescient, provocative and furiously comic fiction seethes with a Blakean conviction of the cleansing power of rage ...[An] invigorating combination of the mystical, the vengeful and the domestic...elegantly subversive" - The New Statesman "A barbed, shrewd, parodic eco-noir. " - TLS Books of the Year Praise for Flights "[Tokarczuk] seems to pour the contents of her incandescent mind onto the page.... Some bits read like campfire tales -- stories of an inebriated, Moby-Dick-quoting ferryboat captain gone rogue on his daily route, or a foolish prince straight out of Arabian Nights.... Taken all together, Flights has the quality of a dream.... It's magical: electrifying, strange, and sensationally alive." -- Entertainment Weekly "A revelation ... Flights is a witty, imaginative, hard-to-classify work that is in the broadest sense about travel.... In this risky, restlessly mercurial book, [Tokarczuk has] found a way of turning...philosophy into writing that doesn't just take flight but soars." - NPR's "Fresh Air" "Her discerning eye shakes things up, in the same way that her book scrambles conventional forms... Like her characters, our narrator is always on the move, and is always noticing and theorizing, often brilliantly." -- The New Yorker, "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 "Sardonic humour and gothic plot-twists add a layer of macabre rustic comedy." - The Economist "One of the funniest books of the year." - The Guardian "Tokarczuk's prescient, provocative and furiously comic fiction seethes with a Blakean conviction of the cleansing power of rage ...[An] invigorating combination of the mystical, the vengeful and the domestic...elegantly subversive" - The New Statesman "A barbed, shrewd, parodic eco-noir. " - TLS Books of the Year Praise for Flights "[Tokarczuk] seems to pour the contents of her incandescent mind onto the page.... Some bits read like campfire tales -- stories of an inebriated, Moby-Dick-quoting ferryboat captain gone rogue on his daily route, or a foolish prince straight out of Arabian Nights.... Taken all together, Flights has the quality of a dream.... It's magical: electrifying, strange, and sensationally alive." -- Entertainment Weekly "A revelation ... Flights is a witty, imaginative, hard-to-classify work that is in the broadest sense about travel.... In this risky, restlessly mercurial book, [Tokarczuk has] found a way of turning...philosophy into writing that doesn't just take flight but soars." - NPR's "Fresh Air" "Her discerning eye shakes things up, in the same way that her book scrambles conventional forms... Like her characters, our narrator is always on the move, and is always noticing and theorizing, often brilliantly." -- The New Yorker, "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 "An astonishing amalgam of thriller, comedy and political treatise, written by a woman who combines an extraordinary intellect with an anarchic sensibility." - The Guardian "Sardonic humour and gothic plot-twists add a layer of macabre rustic comedy." - The Economist "Tokarczuk's prescient, provocative and furiously comic fiction seethes with a Blakean conviction of the cleansing power of rage: the vengeance of the weak when justice is denied." -The New Statesman "Exhilaratingly readable...provocative and darkly comic." -Evening Standard "A barbed, shrewd parodic eco- noir ." -Times Literary Supplement Praise for Flights "[Tokarczuk] seems to pour the contents of her incandescent mind onto the page.... Some bits read like campfire tales -- stories of an inebriated, Moby-Dick-quoting ferryboat captain gone rogue on his daily route, or a foolish prince straight out of Arabian Nights.... Taken all together, Flights has the quality of a dream.... It's magical: electrifying, strange, and sensationally alive." -- Entertainment Weekly "A revelation ... Flights is a witty, imaginative, hard-to-classify work that is in the broadest sense about travel.... In this risky, restlessly mercurial book, [Tokarczuk has] found a way of turning...philosophy into writing that doesn't just take flight but soars." - NPR's "Fresh Air" "Her discerning eye shakes things up, in the same way that her book scrambles conventional forms... Like her characters, our narrator is always on the move, and is always noticing and theorizing, often brilliantly." -- The New Yorker, "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 "An astonishing amalgam of thriller, comedy and political treatise, written by a woman who combines an extraordinary intellect with an anarchic sensibility." - The Guardian "Sardonic humour and gothic plot-twists add a layer of macabre rustic comedy." - The Economist "Tokarczuk's prescient, provocative and furiously comic fiction seethes with a Blakean conviction of the cleansing power of rage: the vengeance of the weak when justice is denied." -The New Statesman Praise for Flights "[Tokarczuk] seems to pour the contents of her incandescent mind onto the page.... Some bits read like campfire tales -- stories of an inebriated, Moby-Dick-quoting ferryboat captain gone rogue on his daily route, or a foolish prince straight out of Arabian Nights.... Taken all together, Flights has the quality of a dream.... It's magical: electrifying, strange, and sensationally alive." -- Entertainment Weekly "A revelation ... Flights is a witty, imaginative, hard-to-classify work that is in the broadest sense about travel.... In this risky, restlessly mercurial book, [Tokarczuk has] found a way of turning...philosophy into writing that doesn't just take flight but soars." - NPR's "Fresh Air" "Her discerning eye shakes things up, in the same way that her book scrambles conventional forms... Like her characters, our narrator is always on the move, and is always noticing and theorizing, often brilliantly." -- The New Yorker
