'The Empusium', by Olga Tokarczuk, is a clever, mysterious, humorous, and disturbing retelling of Thomas Mann's 'The Magic Mountain'.

It's set in 1913 at a men's sanatorium. Our main character, Wojnicz, is there to treat and recover from tuberculosis.

While there he meets doctors, staff members, and fellow patients, who seem desperate to get Wojnicz's attention and impose whatever beliefs and viewpoints they have onto him.

They drink Schwarmerei, a concoction containing hallucinogenic mushrooms, every night to ease their mind.

Just as he starts to slowly settle in, the sanatorium manager's wife dies under mysterious circumstances.

Wojnicz starts hearing strange muttering in the attic, and there are rumours about female spirits and ghastly incidents happening in the woods nearby.

But that's not the only unsettling thing happening there—every November, men die in a mysterious way.

'The Empusium' starts slow, but the writing is so engaging. There's a sense of dread that creeps along as we try to figure out what's going on at the sanatorium.

It's an atmospheric read that's part folklore and history and part social commentary.

Most of the male characters are absolutely insufferable, which was the author's intention.

Reading about their ignorance, pretentiousness, and misogynistic views was infuriating, and even though the novel is set in 1913, it sadly still reflects the mindset of some men today.

Huge thanks to @netgalley and @fitzcarraldoeditions for a digital ARC of 'The Empusium' in exchange for my honest review.

It never feels like spooky season in Oz 😅 It’s spring so the weather is warming up not cooling down, and instead of the days closing in they’re getting longer.
 
That’s why we need novels like The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones - to transport us into that mysterious, foggy, frightening mood! It’s BIG on vibes and atmosphere, with a crawling tension that gets under your skin. There’s woods, there’s a dead body, there’s a sanatorium, there’s a creepy attic. There’s a handsome protagonist with tuberculosis for gods sake!
 
But the book is also SO MUCH more than it’s ambiance - it’s a smart, subversive take on the gothic horror novel and modernist lit of its day. It’s 1913 and Mieczysław Wojnicz is a young polish man who arrives at a “health resort” – AKA a sanitorium – to receive treatment for his tuberculosis. He stays in a boarding house for men, and they spend their free time debating issues of the day – religion, socialism, war, art and most importantly, WOMEN. Oh yes, they have THOUGHTS about WOMEN, most of them DUMB. But sinister things are happening in the area, and our hero must figure out what’s going on before its too late.
 
And although we think those men’s opinions STINK, by the second half she’s starting to whip that garbage upside down in a verrrrrry interesting way. TBH if did feel borderline heavyhanded, all that dialogue about how inferior women are – I’ve been weighing up if it was worth how hard she trod that ground. But by the end I could see what she was trying to do, and the acknowledgements gave me BIG lols - she really said NOPE and gave a big old finger in the right direction. I also loved the brilliantly evoked MOOD of this book. The environment Wojnicz finds himself in, the strange characters, the sense of place, and the fabulous final act that felt so wildly OTT in the funnest way. Tokarczuk is a writer with BIG stuff to say about nature and ethics and gender. The horror here is subtle but CREEEEEPY you know? And it’s dense but once I got into a rhythm I didn’t want to stop.

The first book I’ve read of Tokarczuk but definitely not the last, The Empusium’s horror creeps over you, not showing its face until you turn around & realise it’s been haunting you all along.
I found the writing quite dense, more reminiscent of a 18th/19th century classic than I would normally would pick up, but enjoyable non the less and delectably creepy.

Beautiful writing in this novel about a group of men at a sanatorium in 1913. While I was reading I was constantly rolling my eyes at the misogynistic views of these unlikeable men. (It turns out that all these views belong to a list of well known writers, I wish this edition was annotated!) The story itself takes a long time to get going and perhaps that’s what has made me a bit ambivalent. I found myself putting it down and not really wanting to pick it back up again, but the ending was worth it. Hallucinogenic in places, and nods to local myths and customs, with some horrifying local dishes (I’m reluctant to look them up to see if they’re real). A slow and entertaining read.

A dark and hilarious feminist retelling of The Magic Mountain. Tokarczuk on top form as ever with a ghost story that touches on Central European history, folklore, politics, misogyny, all played out in the confines of a crumbling health spa in the mountains. Fantastic.

I slogged through The Magic Mountain on a summer holiday and so approached this with some trepidation but the Tokarczuk behind Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is strongly evident in The Empusium. While it nods to the scenario behind The Magic Mountain through being set at a tuberculosis hospital somewhere in the mountains above an increasingly troubled Europe, Tokarczuk’s naughty humour is given free reign here both through the folk horror blend that she creates and that is so uniquely hers with a great deal of feminist wit as the men discuss at length the trouble with women. I feel like this is a novel of such depth and richness that whatever your social or philosophical interests are, there will be something within the novel that speaks to you.

Olga Tokarczuk's delightful curiosity is on full show in this book, playing around with an 'untouchable' classic- The Magic Mountain- to deliver a knockout blow that comments on the original while providing a critique of the sexism and absence of women within.

This book is often clever and funny, but also touching and heartbreaking, as we watch the realisations that poor health is enduring for these characters.

I just finished The Empusium, and the final sentence left me with the thought that I had just read a complete book—a genre-blending jam spread across the grand canvas of so-called "literary fiction." It was a grim, terrifying novel, yet intriguing from the first page to the last. Put simply, Tokarczuk has crafted a beautiful horror story, delivering exactly what we (I feel) crave in our reading lives right now. There’s an undertone of unease, significant social themes, and an invitation to reflect on life and our stance toward key issues like equality (in many dimensions). It’s a work rooted in looking at reality from the shadows, from the darkness. The narrative carries a sense of the unknown—something otherworldly that closely observes our protagonist, Mieczysław Wojnicz.

Wojnicz arrives at a Men’s Sanatorium to recover and fight his tuberculosis. Sensitive and delicate, he is immediately likable. However, it’s clear from the start that others perceive him as weak—not just because of his illness but because of something deeper. His true strength is something he must yet discover. Early in the novel, a supposed suicide occurs—or at least that’s how it first appears to Wojnicz. The further you go, the darker and more challenging the story becomes, with misogyny seeping from the mouths of nearly every man surrounding Wojnicz. He is unsure how to handle it or how to react. Intriguingly, while there are no women in the book in theory, they form the seed of everything The Empusium explores. And this is brilliant. Tokarczuk masterfully shows us how we often resist certain truths and refuse to say "yes" to reality. She does it for us through this book.

From the beginning, the tension builds toward a climax that some might find too magical, dreamlike, or even fantastical. But Tokarczuk draws from various genres, refusing to confine herself to a single form of expression, and her message resonates powerfully.

I won’t say more—just read it!

Overall, I think I enjoyed this book.

Tokarczuk is definitely talented and has such a way with descriptions. Her writing is stunning and I definitely understand why she is a prize winner.

The beginning-middle of the novel was exquisite, both the writing and storyline were fantastic.However, it did become quite cumbersome to read. There was still good writing, but the plot was quite stagnant and there is a lot of conversation that is repetitive in ideals etc. with the men.

At first, the hatred of all things women from the men was annoying but I understood it was done on purpose so didn't let it get to me. But I thought there would be a lot more potential in terms of the strange goings on in the house and in the area and some clarification. We also learnt about the protagonist at such a slow pace.

The writing does well to describe thoughts and character of the men and outline their personalities. But I feel there needed to be more than that at that point (2/3 through book).

Finally, the omniscient narrator was a cool oncept at the start but then again, it is not included all the time e.g. just like once/one line in every chapter so it does make the purpose of it reductive (in my personal opinion). I wish it was done more because the way it is done is clever. I understood that it all came together by the end but I still wanted more from it. I did not know how the story would go forward from that point and wanted some sort of conclusion and movement of the characters and protagonist.

By the end, it was getting quite interesting and I was surprised that the writer was able to do that because there was such little pages left (34) but it was very enticing. The plotting was getting weird(er) and the characters too. I felt like this was a real insight into the weird and wonderful thoughts and ideas that are only explored with certain people in your life. A lot of people don't delve deeper into these philosophical questions but this is what makes life interesting.

The protagonist becomes very strange in his actions/behaviour/thoughts and the book gave me a feeling of ??? which is difficult to describe or explain. It is like Tocarczuk has reached into the depths of my mind and is playing around. That is the best way to describe it at the moment. The last 20 pages were a struggle to grasp, but it was a strange and fascinating ending.

I am rating it a 3 because the writing was too complex for me at times and made it a bit burdensome to read. I do both love and hate how every line, every paragraph, every page is a masterpiece.

Tokarczuk never disappoints — an eerie and atmospheric novel with an interesting setting, a mad cast of characters and prose which made me stop in my tracks. Set in a European health resort town in the early 20th century, The Empusium follows a young man who has just checked into a men’s guesthouse hoping for a cure to the ailments which plagued him at home.

I came to this with high expectations, and really wanted to enjoy it. But I haven't read Thomas Mann's 'The Magic Mountain' and so from the outset I felt like I was at a disadvantage. Yes, the writing is superb, and the underlying menace on every page gave the book that 'horror story' impact that it self-proclaims. But I just didn't connect with the central character or the story, and I found myself skim reading just to get through it. Not one for me, I'm afraid, but others rave about it so I put it down to my bad and let's move on.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

Like all of Olga Tokarczuk’s books that I have read and loved this is a strange but fascinating delve into a world I had no idea I needed to visit until I was in it… It is 1913 and Mieczyslaw Wojnicz has arrived at a sanatorium in the Silesian mountains, seeking his health and recovery from a mild case of tuberculosis. He meets fellow patients, as well as doctors and other staff members, and all together it paints an almost alternate society that I found fascinating to follow. Just when he’s starting to settle in, a staff member - a woman he has only briefly seen in passing, he says - is found dead, and this event holds its spectre over the rest of the book. I found discussions between the characters touching at times, philosophical and analytical at others, all the while being borne along by the authors writing style which, I have to be honest, is my happy place. It’s intricate and can lose you in places, but hugely enjoyable all the same.

Based on Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel The Magic Mountain, Tokarczuk sends her engineer protagonist Mieczysław, suffering from tuberculosis, to convalesce at a sanatorium in the Silesian mountains. He’s staying in the guesthouse next door, and shortly after arriving there, Mieczysław comes home from a walk to find a dead woman laid out on the dining room table. The owner of the guesthouse, Opitz, apologises for the inconvenience, and bluntly tells Mieczysław that the woman was his wife. That night at dinner, Opitz and his guests ruminate on the idea that a woman’s brain is smaller than a man’s, that women are more emotional, irrational creatures, that possibly they are not entirely human at all. (Tokarczuk notes that these opinions are paraphrased from a vast tradition of male authors, including Jack Kerouac, Ovid, Charles Darwin, and Jean Paul Sartre, among others.)

But something else is not right at the sanatorium. Men die mysteriously every November, and are kept in constant supply of a liquor made from magic mushrooms. There are female spirits everywhere; in the nearby forest, but also in the floorboards, in the walls, in the mushrooms.

It’s a twisty, layered novel — part folktale, part social commentary — written in a similar vein to its 1924 predecessor. Of the Tokarczuk novels I’ve read so far (not enough, tbh. I do have The Book of Jacob on my kindle, but it’s just so massive I’ve not got to it yet), I think this is my favourite.

I knew I would love this book, and I was right.
There is no one else who writes like Olga Tokarczuk, with such distinct characters, eerie settings and twisty endings, I always find myself hooked. The book is slow to get started but the writing is so surprising and engaging on a sentance level you can forgive the long, winding, sexist discussions of these men, knowing that ultimately, no word is lost. In the end, all is as it should be.

Once again, Tokarczuk brings us a delightfully woven tale of human nature and its extremes. Playing with a decidedly Wes-Andersonian style of writing, which is at once idiosyncratic and enjoyable, Tokarczuk takes us through a pseudo-Gothic mystery story in which tension is palpable and the stakes are high.

Sadly this just didn’t work for me. I can see that it’s playful and intelligent and multi-layered and all those things, but if failed to hit the mark, and I was left bewildered more than anything. The basic story (I hesitate to call it a plot) is simple enough. Student Mieczyslaw Wojnicz is sent by his father to a resort in Silesia in search of a cure for his TB. A common enough theme in literature and comparisons to Mann’s Magic Mountain are inevitable. Wojnicz is lodged in a guest house where he interacts, of course, with the other residents, all of whom have their stories to tell and their views to expatiate on. At length. Wojnicz is a sensitive young man and is unnerved right from the start by the unexpected sight of a dead body on the dining room table. From then on he is increasingly unsettled by tales that are told and strange things that happen on the mountain. The subtitle of the novel is “A Health Resort Horror Story” but I rarely felt the horror. Yes, there are nasty things in the forest but they seem bizarre, almost farcical, rather than horrific. Many themes are discussed – misogyny, nationalism, patriarchy, history, folklore – too many in fact as there’s nothing to really grab hold of. Wojnicz is at the heart of the novel but is so passive that he doesn’t manage to hold it all together. Did I miss some of the meanings? Quite possibly. Did I fail to get some of the references? More than likely. Mea culpa, perhaps, rather than the author’s skill. In essence, though, I simply didn’t enjoy it and wasn’t engaged by the characters, none of whom seemed fully rounded and relatable.

I fell in love with Olga Tokarczuk’s writing in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I loved it so much I read it twice in the same year. If I am honest I am still chasing the same experience again, and, although brilliant, neither Flights or The Empusium have quite replicated the experience..

The Empusium is the story of a sanatorium - or ‘health resort’ - in the Silesian Mountains, Poland. It is 1913, the eve of the First World War, and a group of men are receiving treatment. Wojnicz is hoping to be cured of tuberculosis. He is staying in the guesthouse situated near the sanitarium, when returning to his lodgings he finds a dead woman. She is the wife of Opitz who runs the establishment and is presumed to have hung herself. The men receiving treatment assemble for walks, drinks and meals. Awaiting cure or the alternative, they discuss politics, mortality, and women - mostly women. Why women’s brains are different, why they do not deserve the same rights, why they belong to society ..And something sinister and unsettling is going on. The narrator refers to ‘we’, alludes to their observation of the men. In the graveyard Wojnicz makes a disturbing discovery - many of the dead have died in November.

Tokarczuk’s writing is like no other. Dense, delicious, multi-layered, it is hypnotic and mesmerising. I have no idea where she will take me and even though I see that word ‘horror’ I am powerless to resist this writing. It is strange, weird, unsettling but at the same time compelling. Like a camera lens I find the meaning moves in and out of focus and I am endlessly searching for meaning. It is this which makes me want to head back into the novel as soon as I have finished it - what clue did I miss, what meaning did I overlook, what delight alluded me.. Can I tell you exactly what happened - no..It is all rather surreal, and all rather brilliant.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Fitzcarraldo for a digital copy of this book. I have of course bought my own physical copy of this novel!

The Empusium, like Tokarczuk's other writings is a strange, winding mystery, introducing us to the seductive weirdness of nature. The Empusium is set in a sanitorium, and follows the lives of male guests in Gorbersdorf, a strange town with seemingly mystical curing qualities. Our main character Mieczyslaw Wojnicz is a young man suffering from tuberculosis struggling to adjust to this unsettling new place, whilst haunted by visions of the deceased, strange sounds from the attic above him, and battling a strange pull towards the dark forests. He finds himself isolated from the other men of the guesthouse, who constantly argue about politics, religion, the supernatural, and above all - the rights of women. Wojnicz and his only friend Thilio become aware of a curious pattern in Gorbserdorf - a young man seems to die every November. In their visits to cemeteries, and contemplations of art they learn that all is not what it may seem to be, particularly within nature, and even within Wojnicz himself.

Set amidst the falling leaves, lingering decay and thoughts of death that emerge in Autumn, The Empusium is a slow burning thriller, told from the perspective of something entirely other, above all lingers the uncanny feeling of being watched. In this sense it reminded me much of Julia Armfield's Private Rites, Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall, and Tokarczuk's own Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I think this book is the perfect read at this time of year, and Tokarczuk again provides something dark, winding and wonderfully strange. I absolutely devoured this book.

I had high hopes for this book, but unfortunately, it was a DNF for me. The premise is good: a retelling of "The Magic Mountain", with musings on misogyny, war and a feminist spin. However, the characters felt caricatured and never quite turned into satire. There is no strong plot either, which would be okay if this book was at least an essay. While I understand the author's point, this really made it difficult for me to continue reading. I ended up giving up around page 100. What a pity!

hank you to Fitzcarraldo Editions and NetGalley for the ARC copy.

I have wanted to read one of Olga Tokarczuk’s novels for some time, and, having really enjoyed “The Magic Mountain”, I decided to start with this new novel, “The Empusium: A health resort horror story”, which has been described as something of a riff on Mann’s novel.

The location of the sanatorium in the mountains, the pre-WW1 setting, the main protagonist, and men philosophising are among the features which draw on Mann’s work, but “The Empusium” is much more subversive, addressing, amongst other topics, feminism and gender issues, and placing relatively more emphasis on the peculiarities of Russians abroad which may not be that surprising, given that the main protagonist comes from what is now in Ukraine, as well as the author’s Polish heritage. This novel is amusing and satirical, with wonderful descriptions of the landscape and weather, and, although parts are slightly spooky, I thought the “horror” of the sub-title was really more comedic than horrific. It has been beautifully translated into English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.

I found it difficult to put this fascinating book down. I must have missed a lot of gems, so look forward to a slower re-read and the opportunity to discuss it with other readers.