Olga Tokarczuk, the Polish Nobel laureate in literature, has announced that her next book, due this autumn, will be her final novel.

She made the statement during the Impact event in Poznan, citing punishing economic realities and physical exhaustion as reasons for stepping away from long-form fiction.

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Tokarczuk also revealed that she has adopted a premium artificial intelligence language model to assist in developing her literary work, sparking debate in Poland's literary community.

Why Tokarczuk Is Leaving Novels Behind

Tokarczuk explained that modern reading habits no longer support demanding, lengthy novels.

She noted that fewer people read complex books today, and many readers learn about the endings of her works like "The Books of Jacob" only through summaries.

"The world with its destructive rush no longer deserves big, demanding novels," she said, according to reports by Gazeta.

pl and Rzeczpospolita.

She described a tragic paradox: while the world grows more complicated, readers seek extremely simple, one-dimensional stories.

Tokarczuk argued that media, politics, and social pressures force everyone to take sides quickly, leaving no room for nuanced understanding.

She called for the "luxury of being intellectually transparent" and the right to say, "I don't know how it is."

Her decision to shift exclusively to short stories stems from a blunt economic assessment.

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Writing "The Books of Jacob" took seven years, and she calculated that her hourly wage would qualify her for a miner's pension.

"No publisher today could proportionally cover the costs of such extensive work," she said.

She added that she is physically exhausted from the writing process and will focus on shorter forms.

How Tokarczuk Uses AI in Her Creative Process

Tokarczuk admitted she purchased the highest-tier version of a language model and uses it to expand her creative thinking.

She described being in "deep shock" at how the AI broadens horizons and deepens creative thought.

However, she warned about the risk of hallucinations and losing sight of the original purpose.

While writing her final novel, she asked the AI for song titles that her characters might have danced to decades ago.

The AI suggested several titles and added "and also Golec ?orkiestra" — a misspelled reference to a Polish band, which she found amusing.

Tokarczuk often asks the machine to analyze ideas, saying, "Darling, how could we develop this beautifully?"

She acknowledged the AI's flaws in hard data but praised its ability to handle fluid literary fiction.

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At the same time, she expressed nostalgia for the era of solitary authorship.

"My heart aches that traditional literature written in solitude is disappearing," she said, lamenting the loss of writers like Balzac, Cioran, and Nabokov.

She doubts any modern chat could ever speak as elegantly as they did.

Tokarczuk's embrace of AI drew criticism from some quarters.

Yale University doctoral candidate Mi?osz Wiatrowski-Bujacz suggested she had entered an "AI psychosis" driven by chatbot validations.

Poland's top-earning author, Remigiusz Mróz, who has published 76 novels by May 19, 2026, reacted with humor online.

"Damn.

And I'm still at the stage of asking ChatGPT if I can write people's replies for it," he wrote.

The title of Tokarczuk's final novel will be revealed on July 10 at the Literary Heights Festival at Sarny Castle.

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The book, which focuses on post-war migrations in Lower Silesia, is scheduled for publication by Wydawnictwo Literackie in October.