The Lost Soul
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The only book in English for readers of all ages by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Olga Tokarczuk is a beautifully illustrated meditation on the fullness of life. "Olga Tokarczuk’s The Lost Soul, an experimental fable illustrated by Joanna Concejo and translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, resonates with our current moment. . . . What a striking, and lovely, material object it is." —New York Times "The Lost Soul, by Olga Tokarczuk and illustrator Joanna Concejo, is a quiet meditation on happiness, following a busy man who loses his soul. . . It pours a childlike sense of wonder into a once-upon-a-time tale that is already resonating with adults around the world." —Guardian The Lost Soul is a deeply moving reflection on our capacity to live in peace with ourselves, to remain patient, attentive to the world. It is a story that beautifully weaves together the voice of the Nobel Prize-winning Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk and the finely detailed pen-and-ink drawings of illustrator Joanna Concejo, who together create a parallel narrative universe full of secrets, evocative of another time. Here a man has forgotten what makes his heart feel full. He moves to a house away from all that is familiar to him to wait for his soul to return. "Once upon a time there was a man who worked very hard and very quickly, and who had left his soul far behind him long ago. In fact his life was all right without his soul—he slept, ate, worked, drove a car and even played tennis. But sometimes he felt as if the world around him were flat, as if he were moving across a smooth page in a math book that was covered in evenly spaced squares... " —from The Lost Soul The Lost Soul is a sublime album, a rare delicacy that will delight readers young and old. "You must find a place of your own, sit there quietly and wait for your soul." Winner of the Bologna Ragazzi Award, Special Mention 2018, Prix de l'Union Internationale pour les Livres de Jeunesse (IBBY), The White Raven (IJB Munich), and the Łódź Design Festival Award.
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If you like philosophical picture books like The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, then this one's for you.
The art is amazing. The book author won a Nobel prize in literature 2018, the book was awarded the Fiction Bologna Ragazzi Prize the same year.
I guess I struggle with Tokarczuk's portrayal of souls; I don't like the idea that ‘they were born at the dawn of time', that they're seemingly easily separated from bodies, and that the soul that is reunited looks like a(n arbitrary?) child.
But I like that it made me slow down, enjoy fantastic art, and have a think.
‘'If someone could look down on us from above, they'd see that the world is full of people running about in a hurry, sweating and very tired and their lost souls always left behind, unable to keep up with their owners. The result is great confusion as the souls lose their heads and the people cease to have hearts. The souls know they've lost their owners, but most of the people don't realise that they've lost their own souls.''
Αlways, always in a hurry. Wake up, get ready, eat, walk. Drive, catch the train. Shop, socialise whether you like it or not. You have to. Talk. Don't talk. Don't be inactive. Don't spend time alone. You will be branded a ‘'loner'' and a ‘'weirdo''. Listen to the fashionable mottos dictated by social media. Don't. Do. Do. Don't.
And then we forget to listen to the voice of our soul. We pay so much attention to what the others tell us and we forget to think. We concern ourselves with the opinions of others and we don't care what our own self thinks of us and our actions.
Olga Tokarczuk creates a beautiful fable about a young man who realises he has lost the only thing that really matters. His soul. So, he decides to withdraw from a society of empty words and loud demands. He decides to wait. He decides to spend the time to understand himself. Until the day a little girl appears outside his window and his garden starts growing again.
But where can we find our soul? Joanna Consejo's moving illustrations are rather telling. In a snowy field, echoing with the laughter of children, in a cafe with a hot cup of coffee and a book, in a village funfair, in a train, gazing over the fields, dreaming. Far away from those who exploit everyone and everything.
Many thanks to Triangle Square and Edelweiss for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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