On 10 December 2019, Olga Tokarczuk will receive her Nobel Prize Medal in Stockholm for her literary works published to date, and more specifically – according to the ruling of the Swedish Academy – for her “narrative imagination that with encyclopaedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.” This characteristic feature of the writer’s work is evident in all nine of her published novels.
The author is currently working on her tenth novel. For the time being, we do not know a lot about it, but based on what we managed to gather from the interviews given by our 2018 Nobel Prize winner, we believe that the new book will refer to the relations between Poles and Ukrainians, and that it was inspired by the writer’s family history. We can also presume that it will feature Lower Silesia, where Olga Tokarczuk’s grandfather – a Pole married to a Ukrainian – settled after the war.
What has Olga Tokarczuk written about so far? Let’s take a look at her novels first.
Novels
1993, Podróż ludzi Księgi [Journey of the People of the Book]
The plot takes us to France in the times of Louis XIV. It is the year 1685, and the Sun King revokes the edict of Nantes, which awarded equal rights to people of other faiths. Catholicism is to be the only religion, and any exceptions are to be suppressed.
1995, E.E.
The plot of the book takes place in Breslau in 1908, and its protagonist is a teenage girl Erna Eltzner, daughter of a German factory owner and a medium.
E.E. was nominated for the “Nike” Literary Award in 1997 and received the Readers’ Prize.
1996, Prawiek i inne czasy [Primeval and Other Times]
Prawiek – a village found in central Poland, between the rivers Białka and Czarna, which join together to form one river. The village and its residents are cared for by angels – Archangel Rafał in the north, Gabriel in the south, Michael in the west, and Uriel in the east.
The novel has been translated into 20 languages and was appreciated by a large number of readers. In 1997, the novel brought the author another Readers’ Prize of the “Nike” Literary Award, as well as the Kościelski Foundation Award.
1998, Dom dzienny, dom nocny [House of Day, House of Night]
The protagonist, whose name we never learn, and the narrator of the novel, moves to a house in Nowa Ruda, in the foot of the Sudetes. While learning about the neighbourhood, she learns about the local residents and their stories. The novel is full of melancholy, sadness, and cruelty, yet somehow it does not lose its optimistic undertones.
The novel has brought the author the international Brücke Berlin-Preis, as well as the third Readers’ Prize of the “Nike” Literary Award (1999). It was also the first Polish novel available online in electronic form.
2014, Ostatnie historie [Final Stories]
The novel is made up of three separate stories – stories of three women - grandmother, mother and granddaughter – Paraskewia, Ida and Maja, taking place in separate spaces and times.
2006, Anna In w grobowcach świata [Anna In in the Tombs of the World]
A colourful novel, written with panache and in many voices. A vision of modernity intertwined with a timeless universe about overcoming death.
16 September 2018 in Krakow saw the premiere of Ahat Ili. Sister of Gods – an opera with Olga Tokarczuk’s libretto based on Anna In…
2007 has brought one of the most famous and award-winning novels by Olga Tokarczuk.
2007, Bieguni [Flights]
The eponymous runaways, mentioned in the Polish title, is a sect of Old Believers – people who believe that it is easier for evil to overcome people when they are stagnant and not moving. Based on this belief, the author/narrator builds an original story, seemingly unstructured and chaotic, built out of smaller and bigger human stories and her own thoughts – written sometimes in the first, and sometimes in the third person.
The novel has brought the author two “Nike” Literary Awards in 2008 – the Readers’ Prize and the Jury Award. In 2018, the author received the International Man Booker Prize for the translated version of the book.
2009, Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych [Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead]
Janina Duszejko is an eccentric retired teacher, a resident of a mountain settlement in the Kłodzko Valley, a remote place with no connection to the outside world. All of a sudden, the peace in the area is violated by a wave of murders of local hunters.
The English version of the book was nominated for the International Man Booker Prize.
In 2017, Agnieszka Holland directed Spoor – a moral thriller with a crime story, which was presented on the silver screen.
2014, Księgi Jakubowe [The Books of Jacob]
The second half of the 18th century, 1752. Rohatyn in Podolia. With great attention to the realities and details of the past era, the author guides the reader through noble manors, Catholic parsonages and Jewish houses, presenting the image of the homeland of old, where Christians, Jews and Muslims lived alongside each other. The novel raises questions about the contemporary situation of our part of Europe. In 2015, the novel won the “Nike" Literary Award – both the Readers’ Prize and the Jury Award.
In 2017, it won the Stockholm International Literary Prize and in 2019 the book won the Laure-Bataillon Prize for the best book translated into French.
Poetry
- Miasto w lustrach [The City in Mirrors]
Short story anthologies
- Szafa [The Wardrobe]
- Gra na wielu bȩbenkach: 19 opowiadań [Playing on Many Drums: 19 stories]
- Opowiadania bizarne [Bizarre Stories]
Essays
- Lalka i perła [The Doll and the Pearl]
- Moment niedźwiedzia [The Moment of the Bear]
Children’s books
- Zgubiona dusza [The Lost Soul]