House of Day, House of Night

The English translation of the prize-winning international bestseller

Winner of the Gunter Grass Prize

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The town of Nowa Ruda & the surrounding countryside is a place of shifting identities 

Nowa Ruda is a small town in Silesia, an area that has been a part of Poland, Germany, & the former Czechoslovakia in the past. When the narrator moves into the area, she & 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 & 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 & one's dreams but also with all of the universe.

Richly imagined, weaving in anecdote with recipes & 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.

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Olga Tokarczuk is one of Poland’s best & most beloved authors. In 2015 she received the Brueckepreis & the prestigious annual literary award from Poland’s Ministry of Culture & National Heritage, as well as Poland’s highest literary honor, the Nike, & the Nike Readers’ Prize. Tokarczuk also received a Nike in 2009 for Flights. She is the author of eight novels & two short story collections, & has been translated into a dozen languages.