Defying attempts to slot it into a genre, this book by Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk occupies a space halfway between essay and fiction. Travel forms the crux of this wildly ambitious book, translated into English by Jennifer Croft, with the original Polish title referring to a Slavic sect constantly on the move and reliant on the kindness of strangers to survive. The book’s enchanting and mesmerising preoccupations with movement, the human body and the meaning of home won it the Man Booker International Prize.
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