House of Day, House of Night (Writings from an Unbound Europe) [Paperback]

Olga Tokarczuk (Author), Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Writings from an Unbound Europe | Publication Date: February 12, 2003

The English translation of the prize-winning international bestseller

Nowa Ruda is a small town in Silesia, an area that has been a part of Poland, Germany, and the former Czechoslovakia in the past. When the narrator moves into the area, she and discovers everyone-and everything-has its own story. With the help of Marta, her enigmatic neighbor, the narrator accumulates these stories, tracing the history of Nowa Ruda from the founding of the town to the lives of its saints, from the caller who wins the radio quiz every day to the tale of the man who causes international tension when he dies on the border, one leg on the Polish side, the other on the Czech side. Each of the stories represents a brick and they interlock to reveal the immense monument that is the town. What emerges is the message that the history of any place--no matter how humble--is limitless, that by describing or digging at the roots of a life, a house, or a neighborhood, one can see all the connections, not only with one's self and one's dreams but also with all of the universe.

Richly imagined, weaving in anecdote with recipes and gossip, Tokarczuk's novel is an epic of a small place. Since its original publication in 1998 it has remained a bestseller in Poland. House of Day, House of Night is the English-language debut of one of Europe's best young writers.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

The English translation of the prize-winning international bestseller

Nowa Ruda is a small town in Silesia, an area that has been a part of Poland, Germany, and the former Czechoslovakia in the past. When the narrator moves into the area, she and discovers everyone-and everything-has its own story. With the help of Marta, her enigmatic neighbor, the narrator accumulates these stories, tracing the history of Nowa Ruda from the founding of the town to the lives of its saints, from the caller who wins the radio quiz every day to the tale of the man who causes international tension when he dies on the border, one leg on the Polish side, the other on the Czech side. Each of the stories represents a brick and they interlock to reveal the immense monument that is the town. What emerges is the message that the history of any place-no matter how humble-is limitless, that by describing or digging at the roots of a life, a house, or a neighborhood, one can see all the connections, not only with one's self and one's dreams but also with all of the universe.

Richly imagined, weaving in anecdote with recipes and gossip, Tokarczuk's novel is an epic of a small place. Since its original publication in 1998 it has remained a bestseller in Poland. House of Day, House of Night is the English-language debut of one of Europe's best young writers.

About the Author

Olga Tokarczuk was born in 1962. She studied psychology at the University of Warsaw and debuted with the poetry volume Cities in Mirrors. She is also the author of a prize-winning play, four novels and two books of short stories, and has received two Nike Reader's Prizes and the Berlin Bridge Literary Prize. She currently runs the RUTA publishing house and lives in the countryside near Nowa Ruda in southwestern Poland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press (February 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810118920
• ISBN-13: 978-0810118928
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #485,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars collector of dreams, February 28, 2009

By 

Mary Beth Jaynes (fairbanks, alaska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: House of Day, House of Night (Writings from an Unbound Europe) (Paperback)

I picked up this book at the wonderful Massolit book store in Krakow Poland this summer. It is a very relaxing read, I got lost in the stories and loved the idea of collecting peoples dreams. This is a wonderful book full of short stories wrapped up in a novel.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Silesian mysteries between the covers, May 3, 2007

By 

Thomas Minney (London, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: House of Day, House of Night (Writings from an Unbound Europe) (Paperback)

Its an unusual novel (a novel novel?) set in a small town in Silesia (south west Poland) structured around a narrator's diary with lots of stories about the present and the past told by the mysterious old lady who lives/hibernates next door. Highly recommended for people interested in modern classics of Polish and central European story-telling.

3.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete portrait, November 28, 2011

By 

Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk (Oldham) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: House of Day, House of Night (Writings from an Unbound Europe) (Paperback)

I have noticed, over the years, that many Post-War Polish writers tend to write in short chapters, even short stories, that appear (often) unrelated yet acquire a relationship as the book progresses because of the interrelationships and accidental coincidences that occur. This appears to be largely true with "House of Day, House of Night". It becomes quite obvious, very quickly, that the book consists of a series of short stories (sometimes VERY short) that remind one of random(ish) notes one might make when researching a topic; recipes, descriptions of places and flora, conversations one has had. Dysfunctional characters appear; an alcoholic who watches his world disintegrate, a bank clerk who falls in love with the man in her dreams only to find reality harsh and disappointing, a survivor of the Gulags who finds himself condemned in a chance statement he reads in Plato.
My early impression of the book was of a portrait being painted with dabs of colour and shade here and there. In fact it began to remind me very much of a Swiss cheese full of holes except that it is the holes that are solid and the cheese that is empty space. The solid holes, at times, exude a sort of energy, an electricity that charges the empty space between them and begins to create something shadowy but still unreal.
There were times I found the book too disjointed. It is well-written and quite interesting at times but it didn't always grip my attention wholeheartedly. I would go off and do other things (draw, write, walk) so that my reading experience became even more disjointed. When I used to work I used to read a chapter of a book before I set off... this book would have been ideal for those days. Now, in my retirement, I don't enjoy "clever" books, I yearn for a gripping read, an interesting story.
And yet I do not feel I am doing the book justice. It IS well-written, some of the stories ARE interesting, poignant, even tragic. Every now and then some fascinating thread is developed or some character pulls at you... I feel there was a really good book here but it was left among the notes and jottings and never got written.