Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Big Foot is a local poacher who outrages Janina because of his cruel behavior toward the deer and other animals in the woods. He also occasionally assists the upper-class hunters who come to the region to shoot wildlife. Janina describes him in terms that evoke the image of an ugly troll.

This character is already dead when the novel begins, but his death inspires Janina’s subsequent reign of terror. After Big Foot chokes to death on the bones of a slaughtered deer, Janina becomes convinced that the animals have taken their revenge. Further, she assumes the role of the deer’s avenging angel by killing the hunters who routinely kill them. 

Oddball is an older man who is Janina’s nearest neighbor in the mountain village. He is vaguely described as being physically big, but his most revealing characteristic is his meticulousness. Unlike the messy Janina, Oddball maintains his property in perfect order. Even his utensil drawer in the kitchen is neatly arranged. Because Oddball has lived alone for so many years, he is a man of few words, which leads Janina to describe him humorously as the victim of testosterone autism.

Oddball’s only relative is his condescending son on the police force. The younger man lumps Oddball in the same crank category as Janina. To his credit, Oddball proves to be a good friend and doesn’t betray Janina when the police come to arrest her. At the end of the novel, he is left as the only winter resident of the mountain village and never learns Janina’s actual whereabouts.

Dizzy is one of Janina’s former English students. He is described as physically delicate with numerous food allergies. In many ways, he is a fish out of water since he is a tech specialist for the police department. This kind of prosaic job doesn’t suit his imaginative nature. Dizzy’s real love is literature, and he has embarked on a project with Janina to translate William Blake’s work into Polish.

Throughout the novel, Dizzy comes up with multiple theories about the identity of the murderer. However, he also guesses that Janina may be behind the crimes and does his best to protect her from arrest. He remains in contact with her by letter after Boros spirits her away from the scene of her crimes. At the end of the story, Dizzy and Good News live together in Janina’s old apartment in Wrocław, where both have become university students.

Good News is a pretty young woman who runs the village resale shop. Aside from other hardships in her early life, Good News has a congenital condition that has rendered her completely hairless. This affliction doesn’t faze her. Instead, she paints on eyebrows and wears colorful head scarves. Janina marvels at how Good News maintains a happy, positive attitude in the face of life’s adversities.

Good News becomes one of Janina’s best friends and protects the older woman from arrest. She even sends clothing and wigs to help disguise Janina’s identity as she makes her escape. By the end of the story, Good News is living with Dizzy and pursuing an education.

Boros is an entomologist who comes to Janina’s village to study the habitat of an endangered species of beetle. He is described as middle-aged and wears his hair in a pigtail. He soon moves into Janina’s house and is welcomed among her friends. Boros helps Janina investigate the murders and shares a romantic interlude with her before leaving to conduct his research elsewhere. When the police hunt Janina, Boros rescues her and takes her away to a vast nature preserve to live out her days in peace.

The head of the local police force is a plump, greedy individual who dismisses Janina’s various complaints about illegal hunting and poaching. Aside from the commandant’s dislike of Janina’s eccentricities, he is also part of the hunting clique that enrages Janina so much. The commandant becomes Janina’s first victim when she bludgeons him to death and shoves him down a well. At the time, he is carrying a bribe, proving his corruption and the complicity of the police in the illegal smuggling operations in the village.

Innerd is the local rich man who owns several different businesses and is also involved in some shady smuggling operations with the collusion of the commandant. When Janina first encounters him, he is wearing hunting gear and seems proud of his paraphernalia. Innerd represents the quintessential wealthy hunter who believes he can do what he likes if he bribes the law to look the other way. His fox farm is a particularly repugnant activity to Janina. After she snares Innerd in the woods and kills him, she releases all the white foxes on his farm that would otherwise have been turned into fur coats.

The president of the mushroom pickers’ society has a bombastic personality. He loves to make grand speeches, and Janina suspects that he might try to run for public office one day. In addition to his liking for attention and alcohol, the president is an avid hunter, which targets him for Janina’s retribution. Unlike her other two victims, the president senses that Janina is about to poison him and accepts his fate. This acceptance suggests that he possesses some glimmer of conscience for being part of the group that killed her dogs. When death comes, it seems to be a relief to him.