Olga Tokarczuk

The Books of Jacob english translation will be published soon.
After reading it i can say her Noble prize ia rightfully deserved.

It belongs to the very small club of everlasting modern literature masterpieces imo.(Knausgard, Bolano..). A must read.

Anyone read anything else by her?

Yes! Primeval and Other Times, a sort of Polish 100 Years of Solitude; Flights, a book of anecdotes and digressions and fragments, and Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead, an idiosyncratic environmental murder mystery with an eccentric protagonist - in case that sounds like something by Richard Osman, it isn't. All good to excellent, and based on those three she's clearly one of those writers who hates to write the same book twice. Flights is the most intriguing and the one I'd like to read again, will definitely be getting The Books of Jacob and looking out for translations of her other works.

I'm trying to decide whether to read Drive your plow or Primeval next..

Which would you read if it was your first?

Depends what you're after: of the three I've read Drive Your Plow is the most conventional - not a criticism, there's more than enough in it to elevate it above a typical thriller; if you're a fan of Sebald then Flights might be more appealing.

I wasn't hugely looking forward to The Books of Jacob - a 1000 page doorstop about a real life heretical messianic Jewish sect in 18th century Poland didn't really sound like my idea of a good time. And it's a little bit daunting at first: it starts in media res without any context or explanation; characters pile in without introduction; 18th century placenames, Polish names and Hebrew and Turkish words are scattered throughout (I was confused when they talked about crossing the river from Poland to Turkey until I realised the latter is what we call the Ottoman Empire). But slowly things come together and start to make sense - I did consult wikipedia once or twice but only for background detail, and though it's vast and sprawling, and many of the secondary characters remained obscure to me (if I ever reread it I will do so with the aid of a 'murder wall', names stuck up and linked with red thread), nevertheless it's not a particularly tough read, and an extraordinary tale of desperate people believing extraordinary things in the face of all the evidence.

The Empusium
A Health Resort Horror Story
by Olga Tokarczuk

In September 1913, Mieczysław Wojnicz, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at Wilhelm Opitz's Guesthouse for Gentlemen, a health resort in what is now western Poland. Every day, its residents gather in the dining room to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur, to obsess over money and status, and to discuss the great issues of the day: Will there be war? Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women inherently inferior?
Meanwhile, disturbing things are beginning to happen in the guesthouse and its surroundings. As stories of shocking events in the nearby highlands reach the men, a sense of dread builds. Someone – or something – seems to be watching them and attempting to infiltrate their world. Little does Mieczysław realize, as he attempts to unravel both the truths within himself and the mystery of the sinister forces beyond, that they have already chosen their next target.
A century after the publication of The Magic Mountain, Olga Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, blending horror story, comedy, folklore and feminist parable with brilliant storytelling.

Published in Polish in 2022, English translation due September this year. Having recently read The Magic Mountain, this is relevant to my interests.

It's out in Danish already, began it yesterday, two chapters in. So far, it's most like Drive your plow... which is my least favourite type of Tokarczuk, but it's already pretty creepy.

Finished it yesterday. Kinda minor Tokarczuk, but a very breezy read, and suitably bizarre in places. Did her 'Bizarre Tales' short story collection get translated into English? Because it's a bit like that.

A lot of ideas are carried over from earlier books, though, and not always as thoughtful as before. I don't think it's her best.

Yeah this is an odd one. Some of the reviews say the misogyny presented is too heavy handed but I disagree, that's the whole point really. It's a true history of the dismissal, marginalisation, and oppression of women down the ages, oppression that leads to real violence. It's a story as old as time and ever present today and can't be overstated. As for the rest of the book - it's fine, I didn't hate it. Some lovely writing and really arresting images, some great mystical passages - I'd have liked more from the mysterious narrators, and more of the folk horror. The Magic Mountain connection is only superficial, really they're not at all similar - even though she includes the main character remembering a long forgotten school friend and an erotically charged incident with pencils! Certainly this doesn't weave the spell that MM does.

Short interview here:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/05/nobel-prize-winner-olga-tokarczuk-empusium-health-resort-horror-story-we-live-with-the-violence-and-misogyny-like-some-sort-of-constant-illness