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Olga Tokarczuk Books In Order

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Publication Order of Standalone Novels

House of Day, House of Night (2002)Description / Buy at Amazon
Primeval and Other Times (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Books of Jacob (2014)Description / Buy at Amazon
Flights (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (2018)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Empusium (2024)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

The Third Shore: Women's Fiction from East Central Europe(2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
Best European Fiction 2011(2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
Freeman's. Amore(2020)Description / Buy at Amazon

Olga Tokarczuk
Olga Tokarczuk is a literature & fiction author. Having won all top literary awards in Poland, Tokarczuk remains one of her generation’s most celebrated authors. Her most outstanding awards include Man Booker International Prize and a Nobel Prize in Literature. The Poland-born author studied psychology at the University of Warsaw. She practiced in different cities within her country before going full-time into her writing. Today, Tokarczuk has an impressive collection of novels and short stories to her name. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages.

Flights
Flights is a collection of stories on the human body, motion, death, and migration. You will get introduced to a sister who carries her brother’s heart in secret back to their land in one story. You will also meet a woman traveling to Poland to poison a terminally ill sweetheart. In yet another tale, you will meet a young man unable to come to terms with the mysterious vanishing of his child and wife while on vacation. Just as mysteriously as they disappeared, the mother and child will reappear a few days later. The author takes you through travel motions in space and time with these and more brilliantly developed characters.

Ever wondered where you came from or where you are headed? Well, this book aims to answer this and more. The book is enchanting and unsettling because the stories force you to look deep inside yourself. Tokarczuk makes use of metaphors and images that make her points even clearer. This book feels like a treasure chest with a bright and a dark side because of the contrasts. Imagine traveling through the heavens on one page only to explore the dark underworlds in the next one. The stories will pull hard at your heartstrings and bring back long-forgotten memories. Interestingly, Tokarczuk’s message is bigger than you and me. The author explores the globe, discusses places that she has visited, and shows that just like our bodies, these places have lungs, a heart, a comprehensive circulatory system.

This is a big lesson on anatomy with the Earth as the body. It is an intriguing work of fiction on anatomy, travel, and time. What if we could embrace wondering and traveling the world over as a way of life? Have you ever wondered what exists beyond those familiar boundaries? The book also takes a deep look into humans and our continuous search for change and self-discovery. Stories like that of Kunicki will leave you confused, while others like the one of Chopin’s heart and the devastating effects of war will break your heart. The stories are best enjoyed in bits, each anecdote at a time. You may disagree with the author’s thoughts on God and people, but you will enjoy reading them nonetheless.

Flights is not your conventional novel. It is a collection of stories that are loosely connected. Some anecdotes are a few pages in length and contain playful facts, while others are just a few lines long. You will be saddened by these captivating stories’ sudden endings yet marvel at the author’s creativity and the information therein. Through these tales, the author paints a picture of the journeys we take from country to country and within ourselves. It is easy to see how this book earned the author a few awards.

Księgi Jakubowe
Księgi Jakubowe, which loosely translates to Books of Jacob, recounts the Polish Commonwealth’s rise and fall between 1569 and 1795. The author primarily focuses on Frankism, a Jewish division that had about half a million followers in the Polish Commonwealth during the French Revolution. The leader of this movement, Jacob Frank, was born in Podolia, Ukraine, in a family practicing a religion that encouraged its members to convert to Islam. Their main point was that the Mosaic Law was no longer relevant to the End of Days. Frankism continued with this message and, in the 1750s, proposed the existence of a Trinity of Messiahs.

These three Messiahs included Sabbataï Tsevi, Sabbatianism founder, Barukhia, Sabbataï successor, and Frank. The Frankists converted to Catholicism and took up Christian names, which enraged the traditional Jews. Frank had access to large amounts of money thanks to his followers, and he used this to maintain an impressive court. His goal was to impress just one Christian monarch who could give him a territory for his followers. Frank approached the Russian Tsar, the Austrian Emperor, and the Polish Monarch in over two decades. He died in 1791, and at the time, dynasties in Europe were too focused on the French revolution to pay him any attention.

The author has nothing good to say about Frank. She highlights that he was an insincere Catholic and a bad Jew. He not only humiliated his entourage but also exploited his flock financially. In search of a title, this man also pushed his daughter into the Austrian Emperor’s bed. The author also shows how ignorant the Poles were on matters of Jews. They did not understand anything about this religion leave alone the language, which led to prejudices and numerous misunderstandings. Tokarczuk’s picture of the Poles is not always flattering, what with all the Christian children killed because of their bad choices.
Księgi Jakubowe can be summed up as a literary masterpiece that delves deep into Poland and the Jews’ history. Set in a multilingual and multicultural Poland, this book takes you back to the 1700s when organized religion was becoming a thing. The 900-page long adventure will take you deeper into the life of Jacob Frank, who the author confirms was no messiah. While he acted like a good Catholic and sometimes shared Jewish teachings, the author paints him as nothing but a naughty boy. The so-called holy man was so selfish that he did not see a problem trading his daughter’s dignity for something he wanted. The writing is complex and stylistic, and the over a dozen voices make it easy to understand the content from different perspectives.

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