For the denizens of mythical Primeval, its fields and forests bounded by two rivers, the world beyond is nothing more than a dream. Yet their stories – or Times – are a microcosm of the tumultuous recent history of the world. The fortunes of the family of Michal the miller, whom conscription carries away in 1914, punctuate nearly a century of war and occupation. The outcast Cornspike raises her daughter among the creatures and spirits of the forest. The squire Popielski loses his faith and becomes obsessed with a game where progress is attained only by dreaming the right kind of dream. Non-human beings – trees and mushrooms and archangels – have their Times too, as do inanimate objects, which may be ‘more important for the world than people’. Alongside bloodshed and betrayal, the dramas of Primeval’s daily life mark the birth, life and decline of its little world and Time, making us consider afresh the stories that help us comprehend and navigate our own. Rich with the capaciousness and innovation that have brought Olga Tokarczuk to sustained international fame, Primeval and Other Times is an enduring masterpiece by one of Europe’s most inventive novelists.
‘The novel’s kaleidoscopic structure combines with its chronological sweep to create a portrait of a community that is at once epic and intimate, precise and universal. At times it has the feel of a dark fairy tale, with elements of magical realism and echoes of Hasidic folk legends; at others, we are unmistakably in the realm of historical reality. The “times” that cover the annihilation of Primeval’s Jews are stark and unsparing.’
— Rebecca Abrams, Financial Times
‘A constellation of eerie fables, focusing on the inhabitants of a single village, from a soothsayer to a coffee grinder…. If Tokarczuk’s work does have a single binding philosophy, it is one centred on all-encompassing empathy, and it therefore manifests in rich, authentic characters.’
— Sam Corbett, The Times
‘A magnificent writer.’
— Svetlana Alexievich, 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
‘A writer on the level of W. G. Sebald.’
— Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News
‘Olga Tokarczuk is inspired by maps and a perspective from above, which tends to make her microcosmos a mirror of macrocosmos. She constructs her novels in a tension between cultural opposites: nature versus culture, reason versus madness, male versus female, home versus alienation.’
— Nobel Committee for Literature
Olga Tokarczuk is the author of nine novels and three short story collections, and has been translated into more than fifty languages. Her novel Flights won the 2018 International Booker Prize, in Jennifer Croft’s translation. She is the recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Olga Tokarczuk was shortlisted for the 2019 International Booker Prize.
