House of Day, House of Night

This vivid 1998 novel from Nobel winner Tokarczuk prefigures the discursive style of her later work such as Flights, with the story of a woman who moves with her husband from their Polish city to rural Silesia. There, the unnamed narrator posts an ad in the local paper about her interest in collecting people’s dreams. Krysia, a senior employee at a nearby bank, dreams of hearing a voice in one ear, which feels like it’s “making the whole world vibrate.” Aging wigmaker Marta is mum about her own dreams but claims she can know other people’s dreams just by looking at them. The narrator also takes an interest in Saint Kummernis, a 14th-century folk saint who saved a group of children sickened by poisonous mushrooms. Meanwhile, the narrator is unsettled by the monstrous, undying wolves who stalk the landscape at night, while her husband begins detecting a strange smell only he can perceive following a car accident. Mushrooms figure prominently in the episodic narrative, as the narrator eats so many that she dreams of becoming one. What emerges from this cornucopia of curiosities is a rich and pulsating view into life itself, which the narrator views as “beautiful despite the terrible things other people say about it.” It’s a marvel. Agent: Laurence Laluyaux, RCW Literary. (Dec.)