[1] Although nominally a novel, House of Day, House of Night is rather a patchwork of loosely connected disparate stories, sketches, and essays about life past and present in the author's adopted home of Krajanów, a Polish village in the Sudetes near the Polish-Czech border.

While some have labeled the novel Tokarczuk's most "difficult" piece, at least for those unfamiliar with Central European history, it was her first book to be published in English.

[1] In 1999, the book sold 40,000 copies, which placed it sixth overall among the year's bestsellers written by Polish authors.

[7] In a review from 1998, Jarosław Klejnocki [pl] described the novel as "Olga Tokarczuk's most ambitious prose project", and also indicated that it integrates different styles and genres.

[8][9] Dariusz Nowacki [pl], who was previously critical Tokarczuk, regarded the novel as the first praiseworthy work in her oeuvre.