Animal Facts
What is the most common form of hunting in plow
What is poaching
Tokarczuk uses this literary device to give human qualities to the natural world, such as describing the "Ailments" as cruel visitors or the forest as a witness to the hunters' crimes.
What is Personification?
What 2 jobs has Janina done for work?
What is a teacher and an engineer?
On page 160 in her letter to the police, Janina writes, "This is a very rare configuration of the planets..." What motif is she referring to?
What is astrology
Janina refers to these complex astronomical charts as "the maps of our souls," believing they reveal the exact moment and nature of a person’s death.
What are horoscopes
What does Janina deem as the reason for these unusal death
What is animal vengeance?
A distinct stylistic quirk of the novel is Tokarczuk's frequent use of this to highlight Janina’s personal cosmology, applying it to words like "Ailments," "Beasts," and "The Inner Light."
What is Anthropocentric
Which character used to work in the circus?
Who is Oddball?
Which character, who is found dead, is used to express themes of corruption and abuse of power?
Who is The Commander?
Janina is particularly obsessed with the movement of this planet, the Roman god of time and harvest, which she blames for the "Ailments" and the overarching gloom of the Plateau.
What is Saturn?
How does Janina combat the consistent poaching of animals
What is continuously reporting the poaching to the authorities
The entire story is told through this point of view, which allows the reader to experience Janina's eccentricities and isolation firsthand, but also creates a sense of "Unreliable Narration."
What is First-Person?
Which character said the following to Janina: “Why do you keep telling everyone about those Animals? No one believes you anyway, and they take you for a bit of a… a…”
Who is Dizzy?
The character Janina used to work on bridges; in this book, what do bridges represent?
What is the connection between 2 worlds (human and astrological, human and animal)?
This is the specific type of astronomical table Janina uses to calculate the positions of celestial bodies, which she often consults while translating the poetry of William Blake.
What is Ephemeris?
Number of human deaths by animals in 2025
What is 1.5 million
Stylistically, the author often pairs Janina’s beautiful, poetic descriptions of the Plateau with the "Gothic" or gruesome descriptions of these, highlighting the clash between nature and man.
What are the Crime Scenes?
The character Boros is an entomologist, what exactly does Boros do as an entomologist?
What is he studies a species of rare, endangered flat-backed beetles.
What symbol in the story is used to critique human dominance over nature?
What are animals, specifically animal cruelty?
When Janina calculates the "moment of transition" for the deceased neighbors, she frequently cites the importance of this specific point in the zodiac that was rising on the eastern horizon at the time of their birth.
What is the Ascendant (Rising Sign)?
The top 3 animals that kill humans annually
1. mosquitoes
2. Snakes
3. dogs
Despite being a murder mystery, the book uses this specific "dark" stylistic tone to make Janina’s obsession with her neighbors' flaws and her own physical "Ailments" feel both tragic and funny.
What is satire?
During the winter months, Janina watches her neighbors' houses. Which neighbor does she suspect only bought their house for the land?
Who is Innerd, the richest person in the neighborhood?
What animal in the story represents the binary of freedom vs. imprisonment
What is Bigfoot's dog
Janina argues that the deaths of the local hunters are not murders, but rather the result of this celestial concept where the stars act as an impartial jury for crimes against nature.
What is Astral Retribution (Cosmic Justice/Vengeance)?