The Empusium
A Health Resort Horror Story
by Olga Tokarczuk
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Pub Date Sep 26 2024 | Archive Date Sep 19 2024
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Description
The 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate’s latest masterwork, set in a sanatorium on the eve of World War I, probes the horrors that lie beneath our most hallowed ideas.
In September 1913, Mieczysław Wojnicz, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen, a health resort in what is now western Poland. Every day, its residents gather in the dining room to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur, to obsess over money and status, and to discuss the great issues of the day: Will there be war? Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women inherently inferior?
Meanwhile, disturbing things are beginning to happen in the guesthouse and its surroundings. As stories of shocking events in the nearby highlands reach the men, a sense of dread builds. Someone – or something – seems to be watching them and attempting to infiltrate their world. Little does Mieczysław realize, as he attempts to unravel both the truths within himself and the mystery of the sinister forces beyond, that they have already chosen their next target.
A century after the publication of The Magic Mountain, Olga Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, blending horror story, comedy, folklore and feminist parable with brilliant storytelling.
Advance Praise
‘A magnificent writer.’
— Svetlana Alexievich, 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
‘A writer on the level of W. G. Sebald.’
— Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News
‘Olga Tokarczuk is inspired by maps and a perspective from above, which tends to make her microcosmos a mirror of macrocosmos. She constructs her novels in a tension between cultural opposites: nature versus culture, reason versus madness, male versus female, home versus alienation.’
— Nobel Committee for Literature
‘One among a very few signal European novelists of the past quarter-century.’
— The Economist
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781804271087 |
| PRICE | £12.99 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 336 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
R V, Reviewer
This was such a joy to read. For all those people who think Tokarczuk may be difficult and hard work: not at all! It's fun and accessible. The right mix of atmosphere, mystery and entertaining dialogue. I was completely transported to the wet and forested mountains of pre-war Central Europe.
Wojnicz, a young Pole, suffers from lung disease and the story begins when he arrives in the spa town of Görbersdorf, today in Southern Poland, back in 1913 then the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Because the official Kurhaus is full, he stays in a Pension for Gentlemen. The 'gentlemen' take themselves very seriously and during their daily meals and outages do little else than endlessly ponder and discuss such important manly matters as politics, history and - above all - the inferior nature of women. Their conversations are so misogynistic that it's hard to believe the novel is set just 100 years ago. And as Tokarczuk nicely points out in her author's note: all of their ridiculous statements are taken from distinguished real life thinkers and writers.
Hidden in the dark however, strange things are going on. The owner's wife suddenly dies. Death is everywhere. And everyone seems increasingly addicted to a herbal concoction that clouds the mind.
I did not read Thomas Mann before, but can imagine I would have enjoyed this even more if I had. But also without it was a clear 5 star reading experience for me.
Catherine J, Reviewer
I have been scanning NetGalley hoping to see an ARC of this since the English translation was announced, and now I’ve only gone and read it in 2 days when I’d actually wanted to savour it! Like the heady, savoury liquor the patients at this sanitarium imbibe.
I enjoyed Tokarczuk’s Drive the Plow over the Bones of the Dead, and I enjoyed Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. So I knew that I’d enjoy this! Having read The Magic Mountain definitely adds to the enjoyment of The Empusium, as it’s not just Easter eggs you’ll miss out on - it’s also the moments of sly humour and feminist riffing off Mann’s original.
Now planning to visit the site of the Guesthouse for Gentlemen in real life!
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