The Empusium

The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story

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Paperback Published on: 26/09/2024
£12.99
4 reviews
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The Empusium
An instant gothic classic -- primal, prescient, and filled with dread
Olga Tokarczuk's latest--and certainly her best--novel is choicely situated in 1913. In that fateful late summer, with war imminent, it is not just the tub... READ MORE
Archie at Wells
The Empusium
Olga Olga
cosmic, sickly, misogynistic, feminist, folkloric, anatomical, horrific, hallucinogenic, homosocial, homosexual, bloody, utterly terrifying, hilarious etc ... READ MORE
Alice
The Empusium
A Succesfully Portrayed Atmosphere of Inescapable Dread
The Empusium reads like a classic, gothic novel, with an inescapable atmosphere of dread that weighs over the reader within the perpetuated misogyny from t... READ MORE
Rosemary Kelly
The Empusium
The Empusium - Gothic Brilliance
A book of lurking dread. Dread amongst the trees, dread in one's chest, dread in the bacterial conversations that spill from one mouth into another. The Em... READ MORE
Colin

Synopsis

In September 1913, Mieczysław Wojnicz, 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 nearby 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 Mieczysław 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, Olga Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, blending horror story, comedy, folklore and feminist parable with brilliant storytelling.

  • Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions
  • ISBN: 9781804271087
  • Number of pages: 336
  • Dimensions: 197 x 125 mm

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