The empusium A health resort horror story

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).

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.)

In a work that harks back toThe Magic Mountain, a young Pole seeks treatment for tuberculosis. In the latest from Nobel Prize--winner Tokarczuk, a young man suffering from tuberculosis seeks respite for his illness at a sanatorium in the Silesian mountains. When Mieczysław Wojnicz finds the resort itself full, he rents a room at the Guesthouse for Gentlemen, a small inn owned by Wilhelm Opitz, where, almost immediately, strange things start to happen: For one thing, Wojnicz starts hearing a cooing sound that seems to emanate from the attic; for another, the local herbal liqueur the men drink in the evenings might be affecting them in not-entirely-natural ways. But the main thrust of this novel, which repeatedly calls to mind Thomas Mann'sMagic Mountain, with which it shares a time period and setting, appears to be located in the debates that spring up between the men at the guesthouse, though Wojnicz rarely participates. "The subjects recurred, vanished and returned," Tokarczuk writes. "Does man have a soul? Does he always act selfishly? Monarchy or democracy? Is socialism an opportunity for mankind? Can one tell whether a text was written by a man or a woman? Are women responsible enough to be allowed voting rights?" This is the direction in which the debates inevitably lead: the differences between men and women, and the ultimate, inevitable inferiority of women. The book, which is notably lacking in female characters, returns to this topic again and again, in increasingly subtle ways. But gender is just one of the mysteries at play here. Why won't Wojnicz undress for the doctor? Why does another patient keep warning Wojnicz about violent deaths that supposedly occur at the sanatorium each year? Tokarczuk's latest work 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. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.