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The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story
AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER!
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
“A folk horror story with a deceptively light and knowing tone … elegant and genuinely unsettling.” –The New York Times Book Review
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.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
“A folk horror story with a deceptively light and knowing tone … elegant and genuinely unsettling.” –The New York Times Book Review
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.
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Community Reviews
4/5
On the cusp of World War I MieczysÅaw Wojnicz arrives at Görbersdorf to recover from tuberculosis at a health resort. While there, he lodges at Wilhelm Opitzâs Guesthouse for Gentlemen where he meets and befriends the other residents. With not much to do besides follow the treatment and take walks, the new friends dedicate their time to discussing and debate about varied matters and issues while consuming the local hallucinogenic drink. From the possibility of war to religion, national identity, and of course the thing they obsessed the most over: women. But something sinister lurks in this quiet town, something is watching the locals and patients and it's growing hungry for a sacrifice.
What an odd book! On the surface, it seems like nothing much happens yet the tension and the anticipation are always palpable. Olga Tokarczuk's prose is hypnotic, this plot in someone else's hands wouldn't have worked, the strength here is in the writing. I liked that the horror was both supernatural and human, and that we never got clear answers in either case. Were the tuntschi the women you fled the witch trials? Were they some sort of mycelium? Did Wilhelm kill his wife? Did it even matter? Yet the terror never conflicted nor overshadowed MieczysÅaw own problems and personal growth.
Plot wise, I was riveted even when nothing was happening because there was always a clear subtext that the reader wasn't getting the full picture. There's a lot of talking in here, and a lot of it is misogynistic views that these men spout all the time. It gets to a point where the ideas are so out there and ridiculous that I couldn't help but laugh, and that's why the reveal in the author's note packs such a punch. Those outrageous ideas that made the male characters sound so pathetic? Well, they were said by men in real life and not just any men, but "great" men.
The ending also turns this book and every idea about it on its head. Incredibly interesting to have MieczysÅaw be an intersex character and have their whole storyline really be about breaking away from the binary and freeing themselves from these strict ideas of how they should be. By being true to themselves, not only did they survive the horrors but also lived a long and fulfilling life.
And yet somewhere underneath this well ordered, regular life he felt a gnawing anxiety; a discomfort had settled in his soul â he could not put a name to it, but it never left him.
On the cusp of World War I MieczysÅaw Wojnicz arrives at Görbersdorf to recover from tuberculosis at a health resort. While there, he lodges at Wilhelm Opitzâs Guesthouse for Gentlemen where he meets and befriends the other residents. With not much to do besides follow the treatment and take walks, the new friends dedicate their time to discussing and debate about varied matters and issues while consuming the local hallucinogenic drink. From the possibility of war to religion, national identity, and of course the thing they obsessed the most over: women. But something sinister lurks in this quiet town, something is watching the locals and patients and it's growing hungry for a sacrifice.
What an odd book! On the surface, it seems like nothing much happens yet the tension and the anticipation are always palpable. Olga Tokarczuk's prose is hypnotic, this plot in someone else's hands wouldn't have worked, the strength here is in the writing. I liked that the horror was both supernatural and human, and that we never got clear answers in either case. Were the tuntschi the women you fled the witch trials? Were they some sort of mycelium? Did Wilhelm kill his wife? Did it even matter? Yet the terror never conflicted nor overshadowed MieczysÅaw own problems and personal growth.
Plot wise, I was riveted even when nothing was happening because there was always a clear subtext that the reader wasn't getting the full picture. There's a lot of talking in here, and a lot of it is misogynistic views that these men spout all the time. It gets to a point where the ideas are so out there and ridiculous that I couldn't help but laugh, and that's why the reveal in the author's note packs such a punch. Those outrageous ideas that made the male characters sound so pathetic? Well, they were said by men in real life and not just any men, but "great" men.
The ending also turns this book and every idea about it on its head. Incredibly interesting to have MieczysÅaw be an intersex character and have their whole storyline really be about breaking away from the binary and freeing themselves from these strict ideas of how they should be. By being true to themselves, not only did they survive the horrors but also lived a long and fulfilling life.
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