Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead The Dua Lipa Book Club Pick

Shortlisted, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Literature Prize, 2019
Shortlisted, Man Booker International Prize, 2019
Shortlisted, International DUBLIN Literary Award, 2019
Shortlisted, PEN Translation Prize, 2020
Longlisted, Translated Literature, National Book Awards
Longlisted, Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, 2019
Longlisted, Fiction, Best Translated Book Awards, 2020
Finalist, Best Translated Book Awards, 2020

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead takes place in a remote Polish village, where Duszejko, an eccentric woman in her sixties, recounts the events surrounding the disappearance of her two dogs. When members of a local hunting club are found murdered, she becomes involved in the investigation. Duszejko is reclusive, preferring the company of animals to people; she’s unconventional, believing in the stars, and she is fond of the poetry of William Blake, from whose work the title of the book is taken.

Filled with wonderful characters like Oddball, Big Foot, Black Coat, Dizzy and Boros, this subversive, entertaining noir novel, by ‘one of Europe’s major humanist writers’ (Guardian), offers thought-provoking ideas on our perceptions of madness, injustice against marginalised people, animal rights, the hypocrisy of traditional religion, belief in predestination—and getting away with murder.

Olga Tokarczuk is one of Poland’s best and most beloved authors. In 2015 she received the German-Polish International Bridge Prize, as well as Poland's highest literary honour, the Nike and the Nike Readers’ Prize. She also received a Nike in 2009 for her novel Flights, which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2018.

‘Well. Where to begin to approach this dazzling writer? Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich used the word “magnificent” to describe Olga Tokarczuk’s work.’ Monthly

‘Ridiculous and existentially challenging by turns, this is a wildly inventive book.’ Overland

‘[A] marvellously weird and fablelike mystery...This book is not a mere whodunit: It’s a philosophical fairy tale about life and death that’s been trying to spill its secrets.’ New York Times

‘The extraordinary pleasure of reading this book lies not in finding out “who did it”, but in the defamiliarising prose, characterisation, observation and philosophy that emerge from each page.’ Saturday Paper

‘Olga Tokarczuk is a masterful storyteller who challenges expectations of what a story can be.’ Age