# Is "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead" by Olga Tokarczuk a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2009) is identified by: The true first is Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2009 (the title is from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell); the novel was nominated for the Nike in 2010, and the Wydawnictwo Literackie imprint with the 2009 copyright line is the identification. Polish is the true first (Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2009).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first is Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2009 (the title is from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell); the novel was nominated for the Nike in 2010, and the Wydawnictwo Literackie imprint with the 2009 copyright line is the identification
- The first edition in English is Fitzcarraldo Editions, London, published 12 September 2018, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones — a paperback original of 272 pages in the house's plain blue flapped ('French flap') wrapper with white sans-serif lettering, ISBN 978-1-910695-71-5
- The publisher's own listing records only flapped paperback, paperback, ebook and audiobook formats for this title, so a trade hardback is not a Fitzcarraldo first
- No number line or printing statement is documented for the Fitzcarraldo issue in the sources consulted; identification rests on the Fitzcarraldo imprint, the 'first published in 2018' line on the copyright page and the original ISBN, and dealers describe firsts as 'First UK Edition/First Printing'
- Signed copies (author and translator) are in the trade and are not themselves a printing point
- Publisher imprint reads Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Olga Tokarczuk |
| Publisher | Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków |
| Year | 2009 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first is Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2009 (the title is from Blake's The Marriage of… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
The true first is Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2009 (the title is from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell); the novel was nominated for the Nike in 2010, and the Wydawnictwo Literackie imprint with the 2009 copyright line is the identification. The first edition in English is Fitzcarraldo Editions, London, published 12 September 2018, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones — a paperback original of 272 pages in the house's plain blue flapped ('French flap') wrapper with white sans-serif lettering, ISBN 978-1-910695-71-5. The publisher's own listing records only flapped paperback, paperback, ebook and audiobook formats for this title, so a trade hardback is not a Fitzcarraldo first. No number line or printing statement is documented for the Fitzcarraldo issue in the sources consulted; identification rests on the Fitzcarraldo imprint, the 'first published in 2018' line on the copyright page and the original ISBN, and dealers describe firsts as 'First UK Edition/First Printing'. Signed copies (author and translator) are in the trade and are not themselves a printing point.

## Is this the true first?
Polish is the true first (Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2009). The census is correct that the UK precedes for English: Fitzcarraldo Editions, London, 12 September 2018 precedes the American edition — Riverhead Books, New York, 13 August 2019, hardcover, ISBN 978-0-525-54133-2 — by eleven months; both the Fitzcarraldo and the Riverhead are collected, the Fitzcarraldo as the first in English and the Riverhead as the US first. One correction of framing: the Fitzcarraldo edition preceded the Nobel rather than being driven by it — the Swedish Academy announced Tokarczuk's postponed 2018 prize in October 2019, thirteen months after UK publication and two months after US publication; the International Booker shortlisting came in 2019.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue is documented. The reprint tells are the Fitzcarraldo 'International Edition' (ISBN 978-1-913097-25-7, 2019) and the plain non-flapped Fitzcarraldo paperback, both later issues distinct from the 2018 flapped first, plus the Riverhead paperback of 2020 (ISBN 978-0-525-54134-9). Post-Nobel Fitzcarraldo printings look identical to the first from the outside — the house design does not change between printings — so check the ISBN and the copyright page rather than the cover.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead* by Olga Tokarczuk a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/drive-your-plow-over-the-bones-of-the-dead
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.