DESCRIPTION

The Nobel Prize winner's latest masterwork, set in a sanitarium on the eve of World War I, probes the horrors that lie beneath our most hallowed ideas

September 1913. A young Pole suffering from tuberculosis arrives at Wilhelm Opitz's Guesthouse for Gentlemen in the village of Görbersdorf, a health resort in the Silesian mountains. Every evening the residents gather to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur and debate the great issues of the day: Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women born inferior? War or peace? Meanwhile, disturbing things are happening in the guesthouse and the surrounding hills. Someone--or something--seems to be watching, attempting to infiltrate this cloistered world. Little does the newcomer realize, as he tries 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, with signature boldness, inventiveness, humor, and bravura.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Olga Tokarczuk is the winner 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.

REVIEWS

"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

"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"

"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