Voracious
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Voracious follows a year in the life of a young woman caring for her dying grandmother in the company of her grandfather, her friend, and animals. The novel is set in a small village which echoes with noises from the nearby slaughterhouse and is threatened by a landslide. The grandfather is renovating a house for his wife while the women care for one another, for the plants, and for the animals. Małgorzata Lebda guides us through the countryside, changing seasons, wildlife, illness, death, and love. Everything is at once fragile and full of life, animate and inanimate.
Original title in Polish Łakome, published by Społeczny Instytut Wydawniczy Znak Sp. z o.o. (2023)
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Antonia
Lloyd-Jones
Antonia Lloyd-Jones has translated works by many of Poland’s leading contemporary novelists and reportage authors, as well as crime fiction, poetry and children’s books. Her translation of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk was shortlisted for the 2019 International Booker Prize.
Antonia Lloyd-Jones has translated works by many of Poland’s leading contemporary novelists and reportage authors, as well as crime fiction, poetry and children’s books. Her translation of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk was shortlisted for the 2019 International Booker Prize.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
This is a story about illness, the passing away, the dying of all living things, and the beautiful and macabre nature of nature. The narrator returns to the village of Maj, where she was born, to care for her grandmother Róża, who is dying of cancer. Her parents had already passed away. The protagonist writes poetry and programs, while her grandfather pushes away the awareness of his wife’s illness. Since receiving her diagnosis, the grandmother has wanted to have as many living things with her as possible: potted plants and insects. The house, gripped by illness and struggling with nothingness, is a counterpart to the entire world and nature. Beautiful and macabre at the same time, dying and yet living for years. (https://culture.pl/pl/dzielo/malgorzata-lebda-lakome). (Municipal Public Library of Tadeusz Różewicz in Wrocław)