Praise for House of Day, House of Night
“Bewitching … Junctures and borderlands are rich sources of material for Tokarczuk — the gray areas of gender, the separation of mind and body, the line between the human and the natural worlds… [She] is an excellent storyteller.” —The New York Times Book Review
“This is a constellation novel: a mosaic of stories, myths, gossip, anecdotes, philosophical reveries and even recipes. Together, these fragments form a history of the region. . . . .Alongside history and memory, Tokarczuk explores identity, transformation, and the meaning of home. Her meditations range from the banal to the surreal: playful riffs on mushrooms are interwoven with weighty existential questions. . .Lloyd-Jones’s translation eloquently captures these various registers.” —The Financial Times
“Evoke[s] a world in which light and darkness are always intermingling, and where modernity cannot be disentangled from folk belief. . . The kaleidoscope of tales and vignettes, and the blurring of the banal with the macabre, produces a dusky, dreamlike atmosphere that envelopes one’s thoughts like a fine mist.”—Wall Street Journal
“Strange and delightful. . . Few writers are able to create a constellation of myths, rumors, and humanity like Tokarczuk. House of Day, House of Night is more than a welcome addition to her impressive oeuvre.” —The Chicago Review of Books
“A poetic, rich work of art that ebbs and flows like a stream. . . Moments of absurdity. . .mix in with moments of rich emotion, all topped with a swirl of folklore-like magic. A treat for fans of Tokarczuk and literary fiction.”—Booklist, STARRED
“As a whole, the book is at once simpler and, at the same time, infinitely more complex than it at first appears. An exquisitely constructed, mercurial gem from the Nobel prizewinner.” —Kirkus, STARRED
“Vivid… What emerges from this cornucopia of curiosities is a rich and pulsating view into life itself, which the narrator views as ‘beautiful despite the terrible things other people say about it.’ It’s a marvel.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED