Description
Description
The Nobelist's latest masterwork, set in a sanitarium on the eve of World War I, probes the horrors that lie beneath our most hallowed ideas. In September 1913, Mieczyslaw, 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 surrounding 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 Mieczyslaw 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, Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, blending horror story, comedy, folklore, and feminist parable with brilliant storytelling.
About the Author
About the Author
Olga Tokarczuk is the winner of of the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker International Prize, among many other honors. She is the author of more than a dozen works of fiction, two collections of essays, and a children's book; her work has been translated into more than fifty languages.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
Praise for The Empusium: "An odd, fascinating book--a blackly serious joke--from an author of great daring and intelligence.... What stands out most is the philosophical conflict it stages between rationality and folk belief. This is the thread that runs through all of Ms. Tokarczuk's wildly various books."--Wall Street Journal "A mischievous fairy tale about transformation, emotion and ambiguity...Tokarczuk keeps the suspense at a low boil throughout, balancing moments of terror and revulsion... Until the horror and the beauty can no longer be contained, that is, and erupt into the novel's utterly sublime conclusion. As ever, Tokarczuk's prose -- and Antonia Lloyd-Jones' glorious translation ... -- will knock the wind out of you.... The Empusium asks: If bigotry and violence make up the bedrock of our cultural traditions, can we still teach ourselves new ways of seeing and thinking? If we squint hard enough, can we find the women and other unpersons hidden in the past -- and the present?"--San Francisco Chronicle "This rich gothic novel set in 1913 is certainly haunted, but also rife with social commentary on gender dysphoria, inequality, and prejudice. Readers will come for the eerie atmosphere but stay for the searing critique of society's tendency to discard its most vulnerable if it means maintaining a semblance of safety."--Booklist "The Polish Nobel winner ladles up a deliciously creepy revenge tale in this satirical spin on Thomas Mann's 100-year-old masterpiece The Magic Mountain."--The Guardian
"Olga Tokarczuk's deft, dark satirical wit is on full display in The Empusium, which challenges the rigid patriarchal world of pre-WWI Europe with horror and humor."--BookPage "The gothic elements keep the blood stirring."--Library Journal
"Reckons with some of the major intellectual questions of the 20th century while simultaneously spinning a mysterious--and spooky--web of intrigue and suspense. A crucial addition to Tokarczuk's oeuvre." --Kirkus, STARRED review "Tokarczuk concocts a potent blend of horror tropes and literary references (Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann) as she realizes the potential of her tale's uncommon setting--a community set apart by the omnipresence of sickness and death, where the rules of civilized propriety give way to more fantastic possibilities. Readers will find much to savor." -Publishers Weekly "Historical fiction threaded through with a playful kind of literary horror, The Empusium . . . is in part a wry response to Thomas Mann's classic The Magic Mountain, blending high philosophy with dark comedy, strange folklore, and hallucinogenic liquors."--Goodreads, "Most Anticipated Boos of the Fall"
Praise for The Books of Jacob
"Just as awe-inspiring as the Nobel judges claimed." --The Washington Post "Sophisticated and ribald and briming with folk wit. . . . The comedy in this novel blends, as it does in life, with genuine tragedy." --Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Praise for Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead
"A brlliant literary murder mystery." --Chicago Tribune "A winding, imaginative, genre-defying story. Part murder mystery, part fairy tale. . . a thrilling philosophical examination of the ways in which some living creatures are privileged above others." --Time Praise for Flights:
"A revelation. . . In this risky, restlessly mercurial book, Tokarczuk has found a way of turning. . . philosophy into writing that doesn't just take flight but soars." --NPR's Fresh Air
"Olga Tokarczuk's deft, dark satirical wit is on full display in The Empusium, which challenges the rigid patriarchal world of pre-WWI Europe with horror and humor."--BookPage "The gothic elements keep the blood stirring."--Library Journal
"Reckons with some of the major intellectual questions of the 20th century while simultaneously spinning a mysterious--and spooky--web of intrigue and suspense. A crucial addition to Tokarczuk's oeuvre." --Kirkus, STARRED review "Tokarczuk concocts a potent blend of horror tropes and literary references (Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann) as she realizes the potential of her tale's uncommon setting--a community set apart by the omnipresence of sickness and death, where the rules of civilized propriety give way to more fantastic possibilities. Readers will find much to savor." -Publishers Weekly "Historical fiction threaded through with a playful kind of literary horror, The Empusium . . . is in part a wry response to Thomas Mann's classic The Magic Mountain, blending high philosophy with dark comedy, strange folklore, and hallucinogenic liquors."--Goodreads, "Most Anticipated Boos of the Fall"
Praise for The Books of Jacob
"Just as awe-inspiring as the Nobel judges claimed." --The Washington Post "Sophisticated and ribald and briming with folk wit. . . . The comedy in this novel blends, as it does in life, with genuine tragedy." --Dwight Garner, The New York Times
Praise for Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead
"A brlliant literary murder mystery." --Chicago Tribune "A winding, imaginative, genre-defying story. Part murder mystery, part fairy tale. . . a thrilling philosophical examination of the ways in which some living creatures are privileged above others." --Time Praise for Flights:
"A revelation. . . In this risky, restlessly mercurial book, Tokarczuk has found a way of turning. . . philosophy into writing that doesn't just take flight but soars." --NPR's Fresh Air
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Riverhead Books
Pub date:
2024-09-24
Length:
320 pages

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