Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

 

Janina is an older Polish woman.  She chooses to live isolated out in the country by herself.  She ekes out a living by watching the vacation cabins near her whose owners don't dare brave the winters there and by doing some teaching to the village children.  Outside of that, she studies astrology, translates Blake into Polish and watches the animals who surround her.  She adamantly opposes hunting although she lives in what could be considered a hunting refuge. 

Janina doesn't bother to learn people's names but gives them her own nicknames according to their physical characteristics.  When a neighbor, Big Foot, is found dead Janina and another neighbor discover him.  He is in his house surrounded by the remains of a meal of deer which Janina knows he hunted illegally.  

Soon other deaths occur.  A man found upside down in a well.  Another who dies after a village dance.  Janina is sure that the animals are rebelling and she tells the police that incessantly but they refuse to listen to her.  Her partner in translating Blake is a police IT specialist so she hears tidbits about the investigation and the fact that the police just consider her an elderly crank.  Can Janina find the killer before them?

This novel was shortlisted in 2019 for the International Booker Prize and was longlisted for the International National Book Award.  Janina demonstrates the invisibility of older women in societies around the world when others' eyes track past them and their opinions are ignored as ramblings of the elderly whose brains are no longer functioning at their best.  It also explores obsessions as Janina leads a very structured life with firm beliefs on certain subjects that she will not be swayed from.  Although it is set overseas it could be set anywhere as the elderly, especially women, are ignored throughout the world.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.