RIVERHEAD Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Pour commencer, le style étant pour moi aussi important que le message du livre, ( lu dans sa traduction anglaise) , celui-ci déroule son histoire en douceur et poésie. Fiction originale, mêlant polar, astrologie, écologie et amour de la nature, avec une héroïne hors du commun, isolée dans sa maison au fond des bois...je n’en dirai pas plus mais ce livre laissera une trace indélébile dans ma mémoire...

After being caught up at home for a long period of time, I longed for something real and less sentimental. Tokarczuk's Flight has been with me for quite sometime now and it is indeed beautiful and almost organic how the text is written and how it has been translated. To write about Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead, I had to be careful not to lose reality and for not becoming sentimental. Janina Duszejko, living all by herself with the fond memories of her two pet dogs and her passion for the poetry of William Blake. She finds friends and companions in the course of the novel and what matters to her is their unfailing support and love for her. The book revolves around her conviction that nature daunts upon herself the ferocity of a night forest to punish those who damages her and it is no environmentalist's call for reproach and rethinking. Wrongs done to nature through poaching primarily are deeds to be taken up by nature to redeem herself through her means and ways. Janina throughout the novel strikes me as a priestess, communicating with nature through the prophetic books of Blake. There are series of murders and the utter reluctance in the disclosure are tuned to suggest them to be appropriate and necessary. Read the book at night. When darkness fall and you feel the night enters your soul in a blissful melancholy.

Contento

# Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead ## By Olga Tokarczuk ★★★★☆ (4/5 stars) Tokarczuk's novel is a masterfully crafted meditation on justice, environmentalism, and revenge that reads like Medea reimagined as an eco-warrior in rural Poland. The story follows Janina, an eccentric older woman who finds herself embroiled in a series of mysterious deaths in her remote village. The novel's title, drawn from William Blake's proverbs, perfectly captures its themes of natural justice and cyclical destruction. Like autumn leaves dying into winter, the story suggests that death and renewal are inextricably linked. Blake's influence runs deeper than just the title, with his mystical worldview echoing throughout the narrative's exploration of humanity's relationship with nature. Janina is a fascinating protagonist - intelligent, odd, and driven by an unwavering sense of justice. Her devotion to her two dogs and her "Little Girls" (as she calls them) reveals her capacity for deep love, while her obsession with astrology and horoscopes adds an element of cosmic fatalism to her worldview. The letter she writes to the police about animal crimes serves as a powerful indictment of human indifference to animal suffering. The novel's critique of human supremacy is particularly pointed in its treatment of hunting. A memorable passage observes how "in a pulpit man places himself above all other creatures," while the glorification of killing is condemned as fundamentally evil. These themes come to a head in the final third of the book, where the pace intensifies dramatically. Tokarczuk's use of foreshadowing is subtle but effective, with elements like the magpie fire taking on greater significance as the story unfolds. The boiler room serves as both a literal and metaphorical space where dark truths simmer beneath the surface. The novel works on multiple levels: as a murder mystery, an ecological parable, and a character study of a woman scorned by society who, like Medea, refuses to accept injustice quietly. It's this layered complexity that elevates it beyond a simple revenge tale into something more profound and unsettling. What makes the book particularly effective is how it challenges readers' moral certainties. While we may not condone Janina's actions, her fierce protection of the vulnerable and her rage against casual cruelty force us to confront our own complicity in systems of violence against nature. The prose is as sharp as winter frost, with moments of dark humor providing relief from the heavier themes. While some readers might find the astrological diversions tedious, they serve to reinforce Janina's worldview of an interconnected universe where every action has consequences. This is a novel that stays with you long after reading, asking uncomfortable questions about justice, morality, and humanity's place in the natural world. Like its protagonist, it refuses to look away from uncomfortable truths, making it both a challenging and deeply rewarding read.

(versione inglese; in italiano "Guida il tuo carro sulle ossa dei morti") Uno dei libri più originali ed intelligenti che abbia mai letto. Sul Guardian di Londra, dicono: Un amalgama stupefacente di thriller, farsa e trattato politico, da una scrittrice che unisce un intelletto straordinario con uno spirito anarchico. Descrizione perfetta. Un gioiellino da non perdere.