Olga Tokarczuk

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.

A Health Resort Horror Story

The Empusium

taylor miles hopkins

Where one might change and become unrecognizable, and yet still remain one's real self inside. Clearly there was both an outer and an inner existence. The internal" one was dressed in the external" one, and from then on was perceived by the world in that form. But why might the "internal" feel so uncomfortable inside the "external"?

He preferred to belong to this world, which did not yet know him and in whose eyes he still had time to define himself. 

Or else: "How is it that people who look at the same thing see something different?”

"Only very small or very large things are immortal," it said cautiously. "Atoms are immortal and galaxies are immortal. That's the whole mystery…”

“Our entire culture has grown out of a feeling of inferiority, out of all those unfulfilled ambitions. And yet it is the other way around: That which is weak in us gives us strength. This constant effort to compensate for weakness governs our entire lives.”

"Blurred, out of focus, flickering, now like this, now like that, depending on one's point of view.”

The Empusium quotes

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