For those who don’t know Olga, she’s a renowned Polish writer with her books translated to many languages, including English. She is a recipient of the most important Polish book prize – Nike.Her latest book is about Janina Duszejko, an old lady living in a remote house at the Polish – Czech border. She would seem average – teaching kids English in the local school and looking after the local summer houses outside the season – if it wasn’t for her unique hobby. Janina feels passionate about two things – animals and astrology. In her opinion you can tell everyone’s future from the stars which she likes communicating to people around. To say the least, this doesn’t really make her many friends around, she’s rather considered to be a bit of an old weirdo. As she is a bit of a loner and leaves far away from what we would normally call a civilization, she also finds special interest in animals – dogs, deer, foxes, wolves – all live that surrounds her.
There is a crime in the book too – a series of mysterious murders that occur in this small village one after the other with all the clues leading to a conclusion that it is the animals that are taking revenge on people.
Janina is a bit too eccentric and a bit too passionate about what she thinks is right. And if you read this book assuming that was intentional it will bring an ironic smile on your face and let you enjoy her continuous monologues. If you take her seriously however, and this may actually be the way the author intended, then this character just seems a bit fake to me, with her looking at the world through astrology and putting animals above people and her feeling of being someone better than anyone else around her. If we do assume that it is indeed an ironic picture of such a person than this book is a pleasure to read – it’s quite slow paced but that’s not necessarily a negative in this case. The language is beautiful and the story is actually involving. And the ending is the icing on the cake.
But (there’s always a but), looking back at the pictures this book created in my imagination, despite the crime and the blood this book seems pretty colourless to me. I don’t know whether it’s because it’s winter when most of the action takes place or whether it’s just because that’s what life is like, it just left a dark, dull recollection in my memory of the place and people described in the book.
I did enjoy this book but I still wouldn’t say I am a fan of Tokarczuk. I liked the House of Day, House of Night by her the most so far and it is available in English so I recommend it. This one though less so, unless you read her previous books and know what to expect.
My rating: YYYYY
