Summary

Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk follows an old woman who lives in relative isolation. She spends her time studying astrology, tending to homes of summer residents of her area, and caring for animals in the forest. When a series of murders occurs, Janina is convinced she knows who did it, but no one will listen to her. 

Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of The Dead Book Review

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk is a strange, beautiful little book that defies genre. It’s part murder mystery, part character study, part philosophical musing on life, death, and humanity’s relationship with nature. 

Above all, it’s gorgeously written — simple yet poignant prose that lingers long after you’ve turned the last page. Tokarczuk has a knack for saying just enough while leaving much unsaid, which somehow makes the story all the more compelling.

Janina, the old woman at the heart of the story, is a delight. She’s eccentric, a little unhinged, and completely fascinating. She hates first names and gives people nicknames like Oddball and Good News, refuses to care what anyone thinks, and speaks her mind, even when she’s being called crazy for it. 

Her perspective on the world is as incisive as it is poetic. Janina may come off as cooky, but her observations — of people, the environment, and the systems that govern them — are both insightful and haunting.

She sees the world through the lens of interconnectedness, where humans are no better than the animals they kill for sport or profit. Her reverence for nature is radical and, at times, unsettling, but it feels like a call to question our own complicity in environmental destruction.

Janina’s defiance of traditional norms — whether in how she lives, how she speaks, or what she values — stands in stark contrast to the power structures around her, particularly those of the hunting-obsessed men in her community. Through Janina’s eyes, Tokarczuk critiques toxic masculinity, greed, and humanity’s sense of superiority over the natural world. The story asks us to consider who the real “beasts” are and what justice might look like in a world so thoroughly tilted in favor of the powerful.

All of this also becomes an allegory of sorts for how the patriarchal society treats women. None of it is explicitly told to you, but you can read it in the subtext (or at least I did).

Janina is one of those characters that stays with you. She is the novel herself, and whether you like her or not (I really did), you have to respect her sense of self and how unapologetically honest she is at all times.

That said, the novel isn’t perfect. It drags in parts, particularly during the sections focusing on astrology. While I appreciated its role in shaping Janina’s worldview, it felt overemphasized and unnecessary to the story’s broader themes. The murder mystery element also took a backseat for much of the book. I feel that the story would be more impactful if it was even more tightly packed and focused. 

One thing that baffled me while reading was Janina’s insistence that animals were behind the murders. Sure, in hindsight, it could be her need to protect herself, but at the time, it felt both absurd and counterproductive. If anyone had believed her, it could have put the very animals she wanted to protect in harm’s way.

Despite its slower moments and quirks, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is an evocative, thought-provoking read with a memorable cast of side characters and an unforgettable heroine. It’s a book that lingers, not because of the plot but because of the questions it asks and the way it forces you to consider your own place in the natural order of things.

I highly recommend giving this book a try, and the best way to go into it is without knowing much about it (which is why I didn’t include spoilers). It’s really short so you can read it pretty quickly as well. Happy reading!