House of Day, House of Night

House of Day, House of Night is many things. Olga Tokarczuk describes this work as a constellation novel: a cluster of stories creating a dazzling whole. It’s a series of stories about the people who are connected to a remote Polish town near the Czech border. These stories tie together loosely through the narrator, a person who has recently moved close to this town. But the stories also stretch beyond the narrator, inhabiting the minds of other residents, becoming various forms of historical text and essays. The novel delves into the history of place, the life of a saint, and to a monk who wrote about her. It explores fluidity: of consciousness, of storytelling, of the self and of gender. The narrative stretches dreamily through a web of collective consciousness.

Reading this novel is a singular experience. Despite its shifts between different characters, it never felt jarring, and I never lost interest. Each story contributes to the overall arc of the narrative; the motifs and ideas recur in different minds and in different forms. The novel is also invested in historical representation, and the shifting borders after the Second World War, which saw entire populations of people moved from their homes as the lines between countries were redrawn.

House of Day, House of Night was first published in 1998 in Poland. It was translated into English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones and first released in the UK in 2002. The novel is now being re-released in English with a gorgeous cover from Australian artist Minna Leunig. Some kind of magic occurred in Lloyd-Jones’s translation of Tokarczuk. The language in this novel is incredible. I found myself frequently putting the book down for a moment just to think about a particular word or phrase. This is my first Tokarczuk novel and I am thrilled to discover a writing style I love so much. I am going to read all Tokarczuk’s work that I can get my hands on.