Tokarczuk in conversation with Julia Wiedlocha
Due to high demand, Litteraturhuset has moved the event to Universitetets Aula (Karl Johans gate 47).
Olga Tokarczuk’s literature reveals society’s blind spots and makes us see our surroundings in new ways, as only great literature does. As a writer, she is characterized by her continued exploration of limits and borders – in landscapes, in the human mind and in literature. Tokarczuk is a universal writer, with a vast register and a unique ability to weave stories together from the historical and encyclopedical, the mythological and political, and a will to explore satire as well as truth.
Tokarczuk’s breakthrough came in 2018, when she was awarded the International Man Booker Prize for the novel Bieguni (Flights in English, translated by Jennifer Croft). Long before, however, she was a recognized, read and controversial writer in her politically transformative homeland Poland. Deeply beloved by readers and critics alike, she has also lived with police protection. Tokarczuk frequently speaks up against the Polish government, which is moving ever further in a right-wing, anti-democratic direction. For this reason, Tokarczuk is often named the free voice of the new generation.
Her latest novel to appear in English and Norwegian, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, (translated into English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones) tells the story of the aging amateur astrologist and former English teacher Janina, who finds her neighbor dead on the floor in his home. Janina has seen several animals lurking in the area. To what extent may these animals be held accountable for the death of the evil hunter?
Olga Tokarczuk first visited Litteraturhuset back in 2012, when her novel Flights was published in Norwegian. She was scheduled to visit October 23rd, 2018, just weeks following her Nobel Prize in literature. Due to the award ceremony, the visit had to be postponed. Finally, we area ble to celebrate the recent Nobel Prize Laureate in April. Tokarczuk will be joined in conversation by her Norwegian translator, Julia Wiedlocha.
The event is held in cooperation with Tokarczuk’s Norwegian publisher, Gyldendal.
Litteraturhuset Universitets aula English https://litteraturhuset.ticketco.events/no/nb/e/nobelprisvinner_olga_tokarczuk