Review by Booklist Review
Wojnicz has been tormented all his life by feelings of inadequacy. So he's relieved to get the chance to start over, even if it is to a sanatorium--point is, it's out of his father's disappointed gaze. While the stubborn, sickly men of the guesthouse engage in heated debates over the inferiority of women and the existence of devils, he listens in, tolerating the brutal "cures" prescribed by his doctor and trying to ignore the signs that all is not right in this small town. But Wojnicz will eventually have to face the unexpected deaths, the strange sounds from the attic, and even the earthy mushroom smell of the local alcohol of choice. And to survive them, he'll have to endure a confrontation with his own deepest secret. 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. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This is the first novel written by Polish author Tokarczuk since winning the Nobel Prize in 2018 (The Books of Jacob was released in English in 2022).
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Nobel Prize winner Tokarczuk (The Books of Jacob) delivers the disarming tale of a Silesian tuberculosis ward and a series of mysterious deaths in the surrounding countryside. Mieczysław Wojnicz, a frail engineering student, has been sent to the ward in 1913 to convalesce. While awaiting a room in the main facility, he chats in the guesthouse with a group of fellow patients, whose misogynistic views reflect the period's prevailing attitudes. Tokarczuk places the modern institution against a rural backdrop where locals remain enthralled by ancient folk superstitions, and she explores this dissonance as Wojnicz learns of the witch trials that purportedly drove some women into the wilderness centuries earlier and gave rise to legends of female shape-shifters. Each November, the bodies of mutilated men are recovered from the woods, and hikers stumble upon Tuntschi, female dolls fashioned from natural materials to gratify sex-starved itinerant laborers. At the novel's crisis point, Wojnicz uncovers a chilling connection between the legend and the sanatorium. 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. (Sept.)
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