Feature Olga Tokarczuk


With the odd exception, this is not atpical for Polish authors, Tokarczuk notes. “There can be quite simple reasons for this. The English book world is relatively closed to translation, so only a small amount of foreign language work can come in. And you have such a big pool from your own language with the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India...,” she says.


She also argues that there is a huge gulf in sensibilit. “The way you read fiction goes back to how you read history. Anglo-Saxons have a view that history is ordered and chronological, and I think that fed into the develop- ment of the realist middle-class novel. You know, the ones you read on your sofa with a nice cup of tea. “There is no tradition for that tpe of fiction in Poland— and probably all of Central Europe—as we’ve always felt we can never trust history. We can’t even trust geogra- phy: our borders have been fluid, impermanent. So our fiction is not based on story or plot—on order—but it’s more impressionistic, more abstract. It has to exist on many levels. In fact, you are looked down upon in Poland [critically] if your stories are plot-driven.”


I want every book to be a one-off. I adore Stanley Kubrick, all of his films were different, not just in subject but tonally. And, as a writer, that’s what I want to do—challenge myself to do something new


“I thought we would be able to discuss the dark moments in our history. I think the people who made the threats probably hadn’t read my book. But the fact is we did have colonies in the east of Poland, we did have a slave econ- omy there. But this is not common knowledge—or part of our national myth. It goes against the current roman- ticised view of the government, and much of the country, that Poles have always been victims, never oppressors.”


A great gulf in expectations The Books of Jacob is not yet available in English, though American translator Jennifer Croſt is working on a version, thanks to a PEN grant. Though published widely in many other languages—notably German, Russian and French—only a fraction of Tokarczuk’s work is available for Anglophone readers: House of Day, House of Night (Granta and Northwestern Universit Press in the US); Primeval and Other Times (Twisted Spoon) and Flights, which Fitzcarraldo Editions will release in May.


www.thebookseller.com


Tokarczuk was born in 1962 in the small town of Sulechów in western Poland. Her parents were both teachers of Polish literature and she grew up in “a house full of books—I was crazy for them”. From an early age, she dreamed of being an author, but also had “a romantic notion of helping people”. She studied psychiatry at the Universit of Warsaw and soon was working in a mental health hospital specialising in treating addiction. Aſter seting up a private practice, Tokarczuk began to realise she might not be cut out for psychiatry. She says: “Maybe it was because I wasn’t really writing, but I was coming to the point where I felt I was much more chaotic and ill than my clients. During sessions I would find myself thinking, ‘You have problems with anxiet, with sleep- ing? Let me tell you about anxiet—I’ve not slept in days!’” Her first published work was a poetry collection, but she found her audience with her début novel, 1993’s Podróz Ludzi Ksiegi (roughly, Journey of the Book People), a sort of parable/love story of two book fanatics. She has flited between themes and genres—historical fiction with The Books of Jacob, a novel disguised as travel- ogue, a retelling of an ancient Summerian myth, even a thriller with Drive Your Plough Through the Bones of the Dead (which has recently been made into a film by Angnieszka Holland). “I want every book to be a one-off. I adore Stanley Kubrick, all of his films were different, not just in subject but tonally,” she says. “And, as a writer, that’s what I want to do—challenge myself to do something new. Because if I don’t, writing will become boring.” ×


TOKARCZUK’S BRITISH COUNCIL


AND POLISH BOOK INSTITUTE CURATED EVENTS AT LBF


Today


Olga joins compatriot author Zygmunt


Miłoszewski and UK crime writer Amanda Jennings to discuss Polish crime fiction, and the genre more generally, at Am I a Crime Writer? Crime Fiction from Poland (11:30, Club Room, National Hall Gallery)


Tomorrow Olga is among the


speakers at An Equal Share: Women’s Writing from Poland (11:30 , Club Room, National Hall Gallery) and will appear alongside writers Ewa Winnicka and Joanna Walsh (founder of #ReadWomen) in a discussion chaired by Catherine Taylor


As part of her Author of the Day duties, Olga also appears in Conversation with Rosie Goldsmith at 14:30 in the English PEN Literary Salon


Thursday In her last London Book


Fair appearance, Olga joins compatriots Jacek Dukaj and Jacek Dehnel to discuss Writing History as Fiction in 21st Century Poland (14:30, Club Room, National Hall Gallery)


25


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48