Review by Library Journal Review
Set in Silesia in southwest Poland on the Czech border, this novel from Nobel Prize-winning Tokarczuk (Mr. Distinctive) consists of linked stories, essays, and vignettes. After being occupied by Germany during World War II, Silesia was resettled by Poles from eastern Poland, which the USSR had annexed. The novel's narrator and her husband join the wave of Poles moving to small villages in Silesia, acquiring a house formerly owned by Germans. As she adapts to her new home, the narrator experiences the region via its flora and fauna (including poisonous mushrooms for which she shares recipes) and via the stories of her neighbors. Next door is an older woman named Marta, a wigmaker who is the source of much folk wisdom. There's also So-and-So, who drunkenly roams the neighborhood with his chainsaw, offering to cut down trees; Marek Marek, a suicidal man convinced he shares his body with a bird; and a man who dies on the Polish-Czech border, causing an international incident. Through these stories, Tokarczuk captures the intersection of history, war, survival, religion, philosophy, dreams, and the land. VERDICT Written in 1998 and first published in English in 2003, this reissued novel is representative of Tokarczuk's "constellation novels," in which scattered fragments are beautifully tied together to form a unified whole.--Jacqueline Snider
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