Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

In this character study of a woman living in an isolated, rural setting, we meet Janina Duszejko: an astrologist and steward of winter houses.

Life in the mountains is tough enough, but this year a number of bodies are discovered: killed in mysterious circumstances. The town are baffled. The police are baffled. Luckily, Janina has a few theories.

Janina is a funny, off-beat narrator. She’s haunted by her ancestors, draws cosmograms of the people she meets, and makes sharp work telling the police she knows better than they about doing their jobs. She’s not entirely beloved by the law.

First thing next morning I drove to the post office. I wanted the letter to be sent registered, as then I would have proof of posting. However, it all seemed a little pointless, for the Police station is bang opposite the post office, on the other side of the street. (190)

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is a novel of ideas as much as it is a story of murders in the wilderness; the relationship between people and animals being chief among them.

Unusual, funny, and thought-provoking. I loved the scene with the dentist, and the wistful tone twisting through the refrains that the grass is greener in the Czech Republic.

WHAT TO READ NEXT

If you liked Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, try Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au.