Olga Tokarczuk

The 2018 Nobel Laureate is Olga Tokarczuk. Lingua Bytes joins in celebrating her work.

In this video Olga starts with an anecdote of her coming across an entry on Poland in an encyclopedia in England. She read: "Poland is a country that popped up in maps of Europe from time to time".

Polish history is complicated, so writing over and over Polish history is needed, to reiterate things. "As nothing is obvious in Poland, you have to narrate everything afresh". She compares this with  re-translating a novel to acquire a new language.

Antonia Lloyd-Jones’s translations makes Olga's texts accessible for those of us who are not so good at reading Polish. This is a short interview with Antonia, who takes translation as a "mission". She believes that literature is very important for our mutual understanding. "We can realize through literature what we share, what we have in common".

Have you read any of Olga's books? In Polish, in translation, both? Share with Lingua Bytes! Which one would you recommend to start with?