Pulling from folktales, mythology, art, and literature, Tokarczuk’s novel spins a story that feels eerily familiar and yet totally new ... For Tokarczuk, telling odd and sometimes incredible stories seems to be a political choice, a way of challenging the official histories that get passed down ... A masterful novel.
A mischievous fairy tale about transformation, emotion and ambiguity. These are bracing remedies for a world that too often forces us toward stasis, indifference and binaries ... As ever, Tokarczuk’s prose — and Antonia Lloyd-Jones’ glorious translation thereof from the Polish — will knock the wind out of you ... Resonant.