Author: Kendra Winchester

Olga Tokarczuk is a Polish treasure. When she won the Nobel Prize a few years ago, I swear I could hear Poland screaming for joy. She has written several novels, including Flights and The Books of Jacob. But Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is her only mystery novel. The story goes that Tokarczuk was working on The Books of Jacob but knew she wouldn’t have it done in time for her publisher. So she sat down and wrote this one instead before returning to work on The Books of Jacob. No wonder she won the Nobel!

The mystery begins when Janina, an older woman living in a remote Polish village, discovers her neighbor, who she calls Big Foot, is dead. Another man in the neighborhood had come to her about not seeing Big Foot for a while, so they both ventured over to the man’s house and discovered the body. The police come and check out the scene, and Janina goes back to her life of translating William Blake’s poems. But other bodies start turning up, and the police remain clueless, so Janina starts an investigation of her own.

All mystery lovers are probably familiar with the older lady detective story. I mean, that’s the entire premise of Murder She Wrote, possibly the best mystery series of all time. But Tokarczuk is ready for her readers’ assumptions. As the story continues, Tokarczuk turns what could have been a very predictable plot on its head. And by the end, readers have no idea what’s about to go down.

Antonia Lloyd-Jones has given us a beautiful translation that perfectly evokes Janina’s curmudgeonly attitude. You can hear Janina’s voice in your head as she complains about the ridiculous number of incompetent men she’s constantly surrounded by throughout the story.

You might think you know where this short story collection is going, but then the story turns in a completely different direction. Such is the masterful storyteller that is Bora Chung. Admittedly, I had to steel myself for a second as I headed into this collection as it’s full of violence and revels in bodily horror. But I am so glad I picked up this collection. It’s stunning.

In “Snare,” a man discovers that he can collect gold from a fox’s blood, so he traps her and makes himself rich at the cost of her suffering. But soon the fox is dead and he must find a new way to make his money. “The Frozen Finger” follows a woman who is in a car accident and wakes up and can’t remember where she is or how she got there. A mysterious voice beckons to her, trying to help her recover her memories. “Embodiment” centers around a woman who discovers that she has spontaneously become pregnant and the doctors tell her she needs to find the baby a father ASAP or the baby won’t make it. In the title story, “Cursed Bunny,” a bunny lamp carries a curse to a rich family, which slowly eats away at their lives. But every curse comes at a price.

Chung’s stories often read like dark fairy tales. Over and over, she examines the things that haunt us. Each story is incredibly sinister, and the imagery evoked from the prose stays with you long after you’ve finished reading. Chung doesn’t shy away from the “ick” factor. In fact, she seems to relish it, daring readers to admit when they feel uncomfortable. 

This is the first book I’ve read by acclaimed translator Anton Hur. His translation is seamless, beautiful in its stark grace on the page. There’s just something about his translations that captures the essence, the feeling of Chung’s prose.

And bonus: the ebook version of Cursed Bunny is on sale this week for $3.99.

I first read Enríquez when her first book was translated into English, Things We Lost in the Fire, which was an incredible short story collection. But having only read Enríquez’s short fiction, I didn’t know what to expect from Our Share of Night, which comes in at almost 600 pages. But let me tell you, I was blown away by this novel.

The story is set in Argentina during the 1980s and begins with Juan and his son Gaspar traveling north from Buenos Aires to Juan’s in-laws’ house in the country. We aren’t sure why the two are headed north, but as the pair grow closer to their destination, Juan is filled with dread. We learned that his wife has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Juan, who lives with a life-long heart condition, struggles to be a solo parent while also still grieving for his wife.

Soon, Juan and Gaspar are engulfed by a mysterious group just called “The Order” that holds a sinister grasp over Juan and his son. The novel is horror at its best, examining the evil in this world, who holds the power in society, and what suffering under that power does to people’s mental and physical health. Enríquez delves into the question, who are the real monsters in our society?

Megan McDowell has given us a beautiful translation that seamlessly creates a sinister and creepy atmosphere throughout the story. I felt immersed in the story from the first chapter and flew through this book, finishing it in just a couple of days. This is a book perfect for the spooky season, or really any season where you want to be terrified. Just as a content warning, this book does contain graphic violence towards women and children throughout the novel.

Toya, a young Black artist from Atlanta, returns to her ancestral home in North Carolina to finish her MFA. As she’s working on an art installation that honors the generations of Black women in her family, she begins thinking about the Confederate monument in town and starts calling for its removal. At the same time, a young deputy comes across a list of influential men who are all part of the Klan. Unsure of what to do with this information, he takes it to the sheriff.

Those We Thought We Knew looks at a community with far too many unspoken truths. Toya, determined to confront the county’s history of racism head-on, joins a local Black church in their plans to hold a protest calling for the statue’s removal. As the day of the protest approaches, the town begins to boil over.

David Joy’s stories are often described as crime novels, but their strong literary bent makes them somewhere in between. The crime happens almost halfway through the book. And I have to admit, it was completely unexpected. The sheriff and the young deputy travel around the county, interviewing a series of shady characters. I didn’t see the end coming and gasped out loud during one of the last scenes. This book is a wild read, but it asks a lot of important questions of its readers.

Joy has a special way of capturing the communities in the mountains of North Carolina. He was recently featured on PBS’s Southern Storytellers series. Other authors in the series include Jesmyn Ward and Jericho Brown. The American South is a complex place, full of many different communities and cultures, and Joy has dedicated his career to writing stories about the working-class people he grew up with and the North Carolina community that he’s still part of today.