drive your bones over the plow of the dead

Until two years earlier, Janina shared her somewhat insular life with two dogs whom she called her little girls, but both have since disappeared. She collaborates with her former student and friend, Dizzy, on a Polish translation of the English poet’s works. She is a confirmed vegetarian, an atheist, a student of astrology, and a former English teacher who is fond of the poetry of William Blake.

Janina Duszejko is considered odd for several reasons. Specifically, the novel explores the themes of the value of all life, how everything in the cosmos is connected, and the role of outsiders who challenge the status quo.

Though Janina’s views might be dismissed as eccentric, her reverence for all life raises some controversial questions about the superiority of humans and their right to exploit other species. Janina eventually reveals that she killed these men to avenge the deaths of victimized animals everywhere. These include the village police commandant, a rich man named Innerd, the president of a local club, and the parish priest. Shortly after Big Foot’s death, other hunters die or disappear. She holds a particular grudge against the local sport hunters and suspects they may have shot her two dogs, which she regarded as her children. As a vegetarian, Janina is opposed to exploiting animals in any way. He is a despicable character who poaches wild game and treats his pet dog neglectfully. The plot kicks off with the death of Janina’s neighbor, whom she has nicknamed Big Foot. Events are told in first-person narration by a 60-something woman named Janina Duszejko. The timeframe is contemporary and spans a period of roughly one year, from winter to winter. The story is set in a remote village in the Table Mountains of southwestern Poland, just across the border from the Czech Republic. This study guide and its page citations are based on the Riverhead Books Kindle edition published in August 2019. The novel is categorized as Dark Humor and Literary Satire Fiction, though it is also generally described as a literary murder mystery. The book’s title derives from William Blake’s “Proverbs of Hell” contained in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. It was adapted to film as Spoor (2017), which won an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film. In this country, the novel was named to multiple Best Book of the Year lists, including Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Time, and NPR. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead was published in Poland in 2009 but didn’t become available in English translation until a decade later.

Drive your bones over the plow of the dead