House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk
| House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk | |
|
| |
| Category: Literary Fiction | |
| |
Reviewer: Heather Magee
 | |
| Summary: A kaleidoscopic and mystical collection of stories all about change which was beautifully written. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 336 | Date: September 2025 |
| Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1804271919 | |
|
Share on: | |
| Video:
| |
What's the good of a world that keeps changing like that? How can one go on calmly living in it?
The title of this spellbinding work, House of Day, House of Night, somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the shift from day to night, however quotidian, causing chaos. But, the constant in that image is the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is perceived.
Nowa Ruda, the Polish setting in which a series of events in the book take place, is like the image of the house, staying put amongst mystic forces and strange happenings. At the same time, the town gladly hosts these goings on, somewhat complicit in them, reveling in the old and new dramas it witnesses throughout time. Although there were many different themes, characters and threads throughout this book, the overall impression was one of completeness and cohesiveness.
The form though, was fragmented; much of the chapters take the shape of letters and chronicles, some are lists, others recipes. Strange details like the shape of somebody's head may be frequent and recurring like dreams. Among other wonderful details which Tokarczuk's brilliant imagination conjures are a gender curious monk, a werewolf Latin teacher, an eccentric wigmaker and a spectral androgenous lover.
These figures are almost exclusively tragic, the whole tone saturated in a bittersweet wash which makes knowledge unreachable, or dreams unrealisable. In my opinion, the most compelling section of the book was Krysia's search for a man she met in a dream, named Amos, who spoke in whispers and made her happy. She searches and searches until she finds a man in the phone book with the initials A.Mos - Andrzej Mos. But, when she arrives, she is distraught by his incomprehension, and his obvious dismissal of what she thought to be prophetic dreams describing her destiny. The chasm between Krysia's dream and A.Mos's grotesque masculinity was agonising to read, her innocence only fuelling his predatory nature. I thought it was a tragically accurate portrait of a world which has forgotten how to love and dream, with Krysia as its only survivor.
It was a shame that in my view, the historical context promised in the blurb about the communist regime collapsing and the dissonances between the old and new country was not very tangible in the book itself, although the themes of changes in time were definitely felt throughout. I was engrossed by this book and cannot wait to read more of Tokarczuk's work.
I would like to thank the publisher for sending the Bookbag an ARC of this book. A recommendation based on this read would be Vaim by Jon Fosse, another work of literary fiction by a Nobel Laureate which also features a small town, dreamlike scenarios and tragic characters.
Please share on: 
Facebook, 
Twitter and
Instagram
You can read more book reviews or buy House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free. (Paid link)
You can read more book reviews or buy House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk at Amazon.com. (Paid link)
Comments
Like to comment on this review?
Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.
