| | | The narrator in renowned Polish writer Tokarczuk's novel is an enigmatic curator, nomad, and storyteller who offers up fragmented vignettes featuring transient portraits. Drifting from one locale to another, including airports, trains, and hotels, the narrator's journeys and layovers are interspersed with ruminations on intention, psychology, and science. In one tale, a husband on vacation with his wife and young son is left with unanswered questions after their sudden disappearance. Another story follows a dispirited mother after she leaves home one seemingly ordinary day and doesn't return. These existential fragments are sharply balanced by a predilection toward physicality. A renowned doctor visits a widow after her husband's sudden death, enraptured by the now-abandoned lab that pioneered a method to plastinate human tissue. Other pieces have a historical bent, such as Chopin after death or anatomist Philip Verheyen and his amputated leg. Characters are drawn to precision, the concept of specimens, and macabre anomalies. Tokarczuk's tales vary in length and are complex and layered, forming an exploration into the impermanence of existence and experience.--Leah Strauss Copyright 2018 Booklist | From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission. |
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