This was my first Olga Tokarczuk and it won't be my last - loved the premise and the writing was so atmospheric, the translation was beautiful. This book reads a bit like a classic gothic novel but it's very readable and I think I'd get even more from it from a reread now knowing the reveal/denouement at the end. The book is set just before the first World War but the themes within it (misogyny, gender) are clearly still incredibly relevant today and Tokarczuk seamlessly blends gothic horror into social commentary, Iconic authors note too.

The novel blends history, folklore and feminist parable with literary in-jokes and more than a nod to Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain.
There were lots of elements that attracted me to this book: eve of WW1 setting; exploration of misogyny; creeping horror; use of German vocabulary (including plays on words); and allusions to classic German literature. However, with its levels of complexity, this is a novel I would prefer studying and writing essays about rather than as a bedtime read. Without doubt, it's a quality text and possibly a future classic.

Taken from the blurb: In September 1913, Mieczysław Wojnicz, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen. Every day, its residents gather to drink the hallucinogenic local liqueur and to discuss the great issues of the day: Will there be war? Do devils exist? Are women inherently inferior? 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.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

On publication, I will post this review on my blog.

The Empusium follows a Polish engineering student, who is sent to a sanatorium/health spa in the German mountains in 1913 to cure his tuberculosis.
He spends the next few months surrounded by a cast of oddball misogynist patients who discuss philosophy, art, politics, their troubling views on women and the mysterious local folklore, all while drinking a strange local liquer and ignoring the strange sounds in the room above.

This story was very different to what I was expecting going in, for the first 60% of the book I wasn't entirely sure I was enjoying it but the whole vibe of the book is very unsettling and I was so curious to find out more, so I persevered. The final quarter of this book is incredible and caught me completely off guard. I recommend going in as blind as possible and trusting the process.

A very unique and thought provoking book, exploring illness/historic medicine, masculinity/gender and perception. I really loved it.

An easy win for my favourite publisher: this had ingredients of such quality it could hardly fail to delight. I loved the pastiche 19C style, the evocative descriptions of clothes and food and furnishings, the 'gentle' satire of the misogynist attitudes of intellectuals, and even the element of fantastical horror (not usually my thing). Oddly it made me think a little of The Solitaire Mystery, one of my favourites when I was a kid. Something about the mix of philosophy and a mysteriously powerful liquor ..

Anyway I doubt I'll bother to read The Magic Mountain but I'm glad I've read this.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc. I was excited to read this after reading Drive Your Plow and I wasn't disappointed. I do think however that a reading of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain might have enhanced this as I think there are hidden Easter eggs, but nevertheless I enjoyed everything about this. We are in 1913 and young Wojnicz has been sent to a sanatorium in Silesia to cure his tuberculosis. Unable to stay at the centre, he resides in a guesthouse for gentlemen and goes daily for treatments. Live at the guesthouse is one of eating with the fellow residents, taking walk in the countryside and long discussions about politics, world affairs and the inferiority of women. This might sound very dull (check out the author note at the end - every misogynistic idea put forward by her characters is taken from famous thinkers and literary figures) but through these conversations you get to know the other characters, other residents. Wojnicz is someone you just want to mother. However. throughout there is a sense of something not quite right. The wife of the owner of the guesthouse commits suicide, Wojnicz hears noises at night and the men drink a mushroom based liquer every night that 'eases' their mind. Add to this the occasional voice that appears in the novel - the 'we' who is watching and the graveyard full of gravestones of those who all died in differents years but at the same time in November and the stories of how their bodies were found in the woods ripped apart and the sense of unease and creeping horror grows. The female seems to be largely absent but there is the sense that the female is always present in some sense - even the misshapen figures created by the charcoal burners in the woods. The final 10/15% is just wonderful and as the horror element emerges. Super. Rounded up to a 5*

“The Empusium” – Olga Tokarczuk (translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones)

Here we are, slightly changed, but just the same as before, warm but also cold, both seeing and blind. Here we are, here are our hands formed from decaying branches, our bellies, our nipples that are puffballs, our womb that blends into a fox's den, into the depths of the earth, and is now nursing a fox's litter. Can you see us at last, Mieczyslaw Wojnicz, you brave engineer from the flat woodless steppes?

My final #witmonth post will be about a book that isn’t actually out yet… but should you get it when it’s published.

Tokarczuk’s take on Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain”, “The Empusium” takes place in a sanatorium in Lower Silesia, one that specialises in the treatment of tuberculosis. The male patients sit around conversing and ruminating on the big ideas of the world – reason, emotion, art and women. Especially women, and in heavily misogynistic tones that, as revealed at the end of the book, mirror the views of several prominent and real men of the time. So in part, we get a feminist retelling of Mann, or so I assume, having not read his magnum opus.

There’s more to this, however. Mieczyslaw Wojnicz, our protagonist, always feels that something is never quite right in the mountains, with its legends of dead witches and hauntings, of hallucinogenic mushrooms and mysterious deaths every November. It’s a twisted, foggy narrative with a lot of strands that, thankfully, come together in the denouement with a satisfying ending. It can be hard to keep track of this with so much going on at points and so many big ideas in play, but this is a Tokarczuk book, what did you expect?

Less all-encompassing and grandiose than “The Books of Jacob”, but more complex than “Drive Your Plow”, I enjoyed this book but didn’t love it as much as the two previously mentioned. It’s still a great read and recommended by me, but maybe some knowledge of “The Magic Mountain” would have helped with this?

My thanks to @netgalley and @fitzcarraldoeditions for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This will be released in the UK on 26th September.

Are you interested in this one?

I have to start this review by saying that this book was nothing short of spectacular. On the surface, The Empusium follows a group of young men who, suffering from consumption, have moved to a mountain town in Poland with the intention of recovery. As they go about their lives and their recovery, eating dinner, drinking liquor, walking in the mountains; the story of each of their lives is slowly revealed through the conversations they have.

This book has so much nuance. The relationships of these men and the roles they play in their relationships; their opinions about the world, and particularly of women; their sickness, and treatment; and of course the ever-lingering horror. Dubbed A Health Resort Horror Story, the horror elements of this story are so insidious that you don’t pay them much attention until the end.

I don’t want to say too much, but what I will say is - read this book. After reading Drive Your Plow at the start of the month and now this, I’m cementing myself in Olga Tokarczuk fanboy territory. If Olga has no fans, then I am DEAD.

WHEN you read this, do yourself a favour, and make sure you read the author’s note for a jaw drop/mic drop moment. Olga’s mind 🤯

4.5 stars. Olga pulled no punches!!

I loved my experience reading this book. The mysterious sense of dread creeps along through the narrative as we try to work out what is going on in this health resort and it leads to an absolutely excellent conclusion. I gasped several times in the final 15% and there is also an incredible speech by one of the characters that really summarises my feelings about one of the Hot Topics of the current age. And the author's note omg!!

It has a bit of a lull in the middle where it feels like nothing happens except these men sat around being dumb and misogynistic but it's really worth paying attention and pushing through.

It's definitely one I will re-read at some point as with the hindsight of knowledge, I think it will be even better.

Also don't google the title meaning until you've read the book.

Olga has done it again. On a first read, I thought I only skimmed the surface to this book - the depths I look forward to on a second or third read are exciting. Well paced, crafted, and further evident that Tokarczuk deserved to win the Nobel.

Tokarczuk's latest work in English is a fascinating one, blending a bizarre and captivating story with strong female symbolism. Her writing style, though simple, is remarkably beautiful, drawing readers into the narrative with ease. This unique combination of elements makes the book truly intriguing, showcasing Tokarczuk's ability to reinvent herself while maintaining the essence of her literary brilliance.

3,5 stars

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC! My relationship with Tokarczuk is a rocky one - I couldn’t finish Book of Jacob, but I think Drive Your Plow is a masterpiece. I’m planning on reading Flights for Women in Translation month. I’m really unsure how I feel about The Empusium. The atmosphere and writing were glorious. It’s set in a remote mountain village where men go to cure their tuberculosis - the same way women were sent to the seaside to convalesce. There’s a strange plural narration at times that reminded me of When I Sing Mountains Dance, used to great effect to curate a sense of mystery and unease. There are mysterious deaths. But (and I had the same issue with Valérie Perrin’s Three) it always sits uncomfortably with me when authors use gender and/or biological sex as a plot device. It doesn’t sit right with me using these things a plot twist. I don’t necessarily think Tokarczuk exploits her characters, they’re treated with respect, but I dunno, just something about it.

It’s also a bit difficult to read at times since these convalescing men just sit around and talk about how inferior women are - but then in the author’s note, Tokarczuk reveals that all the misogynistic things said by the men in the book were a conglomeration of actual misogynistic things said by some of the most respected male authors in the literary canon. Honestly iconic shade from Tokarczuk.

Fantastic atmosphere and writing, a bit opaque in terms of resolution. Looking forward to Flights!

The Empusium is a gradually-building suspenseful horror story of a health resort with a terrifying secret. The prose is insightful and at times truly frightening, with just the right balance of intellectual musings, comically uneducated sexism and eery supernatural shenanigans. I thoroughly enjoyed this slow-burning thriller from a truly exceptional writer. The translation is excellent, with absolute coherence throughout and beautifully lyrical. I will be highly recommending this novel!

The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk

I love Olga Tokarczuk so much, and this has been one of my most anticipated reads this year. I had extremely high expectations and she absolutely did not disappoint (obviously)!

This novel, a modern gothic tale set in a gentleman's health resort nestled in the Silesian mountains, is both abstract and multi-dimensional. Yet, it remains grounded and familiar through its exploration of humanity's various facets—mostly the darker ones. There are so many reoccurring themes throughout; death, gender, isolation, religion, illness, nature - the list could go on! 

If you're familiar with Tokarczuk's writing, you won't be surprised to find that this is a story that revolves around the power of landscapes, nature and also a little bit of astrology. Her vivid and atmospheric prose amplifies the isolation of the small mountain town and the claustrophobia of such a tight knit community that always seems to be watching. You also wouldn't be surprised to hear that she showcases the blatant misogyny prevalent within academic and literary circles throughout history. 

Most of the characters (all male) are insufferable, because that's how they're supposed to be! They're ignorant and pretentious and, despite the fact this book is set in 1913, unfortunately reflect the thoughts and mindsets of many men today. That being said, the main character, Mieczysław, is one of my favourite fictional characters of all time and is absolutely not insufferable at all - I just want to give him a big hug.

Overall, very atmospheric, mysterious and slightly disturbing. Would 100% recommend. I've given it a rating of 4 stars. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I wish I had read Magic Mountain first, it would have given me a better insight into the characters and area. Having said that, I loved the cinematic feel of the book and the writing, as in Drive your plow, is gorgeous. I will revisit this once I've tackled Thomas Mann!

This was a very hefty book to dive into, and I didn’t realise that it was a continuation of a previous story until I was too deep into the book and a little confused. The writing was very atmospheric but I couldn’t connect to any of the characters nor plot points, which is a shame!

In September 1913, Mieczysław Wojnicz arrives at the Guesthouse for Gentlemen in Görbersdorf (in what is now western Poland), in order to receive treatment for tuberculosis from the neighbouring sanatorium. Here, the impressionable young Wojnicz finds himself repeatedly being warned - about the dangers of women, the dangers of his illness, and the dangers of the landscape which has seen so much death - but, uneasy in his new surroundings, Wojnicz hardly knows which warnings he ought to heed...

The Empusium revisits the premise of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, which likewise focuses on a naïve young man who finds himself in a sanatorium as the world unknowingly marches towards war, but the story Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones) tells is very much her own. At one point, Thilo, one of Wojnicz's fellow boarders and patients, shows him a painting he thinks shows a familiar scene, until he changes his perspective and reveals something much more interesting and disturbing. It feels like the perfect metaphor for this book, which uses a wealth of literary allusions (and I'm sure I missed plenty of them) to poke fun at the misogynistic views of its male characters, and to reveal the very real darkness lurking behind its setting.

I loved the way Tokarczuk plays around with the function of the narrator in The Empusium, and particularly how this plays into the uneasy feeling Wojnicz has, in the guesthouse, of being watched. I also appreciated Tokarczuk's sly digs at the absence of women in so many texts, although I personally found some of her commentary a little heavy-handed. I also couldn't help but compare The Empusium with The Magic Mountain, which is probably unfair, and while I think the two texts work well in conversation, I also think readers not familiar with Mann might fare better reading The Empusium with fewer expectations. Ultimately, The Empusium was a three-star, rather than a four-star, read for me because I found it a bit of a drag. It just didn't grab my attention until near the end, as the story seemed to move along without very much happening.

Thank you to NetGalley and Fitzcarraldo Editions for an advance copy. The Empusium is out on 26 September.

“And so it went–first a declamation by August, then another tirade about the collapse of civilization from Lukas, followed by some incomprehensible allusions made by Frommer, until the disputants’ tongues were slowed by the effect of Schwärmerei and once again they were all overcome by a sort of thickening feeling, which made it hard to move because of weakness or disinclination. As if the world were built of plywood and were now delaminating before their eyes, as if all contours were blurring, revealing fluid passages between things. The same process affected their ideas, and so the discussion became less and less factual, because the speakers had suddenly lost their sense of certainty, and every word that had been reliable so far now acquired contexts, entailed allusions, or flickered with remote associations. Finally they sank into dreadful fatigue, and one after another floated off to their rooms, breathing heavily on the stairs.”

Subtitled 'A Health Resort Horror Story', The Empusium is Antonia Lloyd-Jones' translation of Olga Tokarczuk's 2022 novel Empuzjon.

The book is an alternative take on Mann's Der Zauberberg, set in 1913 the Silesian health spa resort of Görbersdorf (now Sokołowsko) from which the clinic in Davos took its inspiration. At initial face value, this reads as a work of the same period as Mann's novel, and read simply as historical fiction, Tokarczuk's recreation of the town is impressive, rendered in vivid prose:

“By a twist of circumstance, as Frau Opitz’s body was descending on ropes into the open grave, the exact autumn equinox took place, and the ecliptic was aligned in such a special way that it counterbalanced the vibration of the Earth. Naturally, nobody noticed this–people have more important things on their minds. But we know it.

In the highland valley that spread above the underground lake stillness sets in, and although it is never windy here, now there is no sense of the faintest puff, as though the world were holding its breath. Late insects are perching on stems, a starling turns to stone, staring at a long-gone movement among the clumps of parsley in the garden. A spiderweb stretched between the blackberry bushes stops quivering and goes taut, straining to hear the waves coming from the cosmos, and water makes itself at home in the moss thallus, as if it were to stay there forever, as if it were to forget about its most integral feature–that it flows. For the earthworm, the world’s tension is a sign to seek shelter for the winter. Now it is planning to push down into the ground, perhaps hoping to find the deeply hidden ruins of paradise. The cows that chew the yellowing grass also come to a standstill, putting their internal factories of life on hold. A squirrel looks at the miracle of a nut and knows that it is pure, condensed time, that it is also its future, dressed in this strange form. And in this brief moment everything defines itself anew, marking out its limits and aims afresh; just for a short while, blurred shapes cluster together again.

It is a very brief moment of equilibrium between light and darkness, almost imperceptible, a single instant in which the whole pattern is filled, the promise of great order is fulfilled, but only in the blink of an eye. In this scrap of time everything returns to a state of perfection that existed before the sky was separated from the earth. But at once this perfect balance dissolves like a shape on water, the image dims and dusk starts to drift towards night, then night gains the upper hand–now it will be avenged for its six-month period of humiliation, establishing new bridgeheads every evening.”

But the political and philos debate, unlike Mann's, rather peter out as the patients are too fond of the local liquor, Schwärmerei: “Its strange flavour and smell made Wojnicz think of the word ‘underground’. It tasted of roots and moss, mushroom spawn and liquorice all at once. It must have contained aniseed and wormwood. The first impression on the tongue was not good–it seemed to smell bad, but only for a split second. Then warmth flooded the mouth, and the sensation of an incredible wealth of flavours–like forest berries and something entirely exotic.”

and also descend rapidly into one topic - “Wojnicz had noticed that every discussion, whether about democracy, the fifth dimension, the role of religion, socialism, Europe, or modern art, eventually led to women” - and to straight out misogyny:

“À propos, sometimes when we address a woman,’ continued the buttoned-up Walter Frommer, ‘we might gain the impression that she replies sensibly and thinks as we do. But that is an illusion. They imitate’–he placed special emphasis on the word imitate–‘our way of communicating, and one cannot deny that some of them are very good at it.’”

Cleverly, Tokarczuk has taken all the views expressed from a range of 36 canonical male writers and thinkers, including Augustine of Hippo, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Conrad, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Jack Kerouac, D.H. Lawrence, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ovid and Plato, Jean-Paul Sartre, Shakespeare, August Strindberg and Thomas Aquinas”.

The novel takes its title from Aristophanes play Βάτραχοι (The Frogs), which one character tells claims is the earliest known mention of witches in literature:

“XANTHIAS Aargh, I can see a gigantic monster!
DIONYSUS What’s it like?
XANTHIAS Terrifying. And it keeps changing: it’s a bull, no, it’s a mule, and now it’s a woman. And what a beauty!
DIONYSUS Where is she? Let me at her!
XANTHIAS The woman’s gone, she’s changed into a dog.
DIONYSUS So it’s Empusa!
XANTHIAS Her whole face is one great ball of fire!
DIONYSUS Does she have a leg of bronze?
XANTHIAS By Poseidon, the other one’s made of cow dung, I’m sure of it!
DIONYSUS Where can I run to?
XANTHIAS And where can I?”

And as the novel progresses the Horror Story element comes to the fore, with the mysterious Tutschi, figures in the form of a woman created out of the natural products of the forest which the local charcoal burners used for sexual relief, but which seem to, once a year, have a life of their own (leading to an oddly high number of graves in the local cemetary with men who die in November). And the Hans-Castorp-like central character, Mieczysław Wojnicz, in his early 20s, harbours a hidden secret of his own.

An impressive read - not as innovative as Flights (tr. Jennifer Croft), which remains my favourite of Tokarczuk's work, but one which combines the atmosphere of Primeval and Other Times and the mystery element of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (both tr. Lloyd-Jones) with a political message, and at a more sensible length than The Books of Jacob (tr. Croft).

In a textual conversation between one Nobel winner and another, Tokarczuk re-opens Mann's [book:The Magic Mountain|661418] but in her own inimitable way. This feels more like [book:Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead|51648276] than [book:The Books of Jacob|41724950]: it's easy to read, is quite the page-turner, in fact, though - of course - there are depths here too. OT's humour is on full display as is her sardonic wit and intelligence and, make no mistake, there's a whole raft of quotations, allusions and intertexts that make up the narrative. With an author's note that stretches from Ovid to Shakespeare, Augustine to Milton, Darwin to Kerouac, this places itself firmly in dialogue with a whole stretch of what we might loosely call western thought, just as Mann offered up a compressed survey of European philosophy.

What is at stake here, though, is a question of gender and the extent to which misogyny is deeply (deeply) engrained within western intellectual traditions and culture. OT deals with this with a sense of biting sarcasm: ' "Woman represents a bygone, inferior stage of evolution, so writes Darwin... Woman is like..." - here he sought the right word - "an evolutionary laggard" '; and the 'puppen', kinds of organic sex dolls (though keep your eye on them...).

The book also revitalises the <i>bildungsroman</i> tradition partly by exploring the way Wojnicz's upbringing by his father inculcates a sense of conservative masculinity but also by offering up quite a different sense of growth: 'he felt plural, multiple, multifaceted, compound and complicated like a coral reef, like a mushroom spawn whose actual existence is located underground'.

I'm assuming the title is a compound term indicating a merger between 'empusa', the female witch-like spirits mentioned in Aristophanes' [book:The Frogs|242296], and Plato's (all male) [book:Symposium|81779] - a spot-on mash-up that brings together the philosophical and the comical in all these texts.

It's worth adding that you should keep an eye out for the switch to a 'we' first-person plural voice - I was reading an ARC which doesn't always allow a space before the transition, though it's easy enough to note it - I won't say anything about what this means in terms of plot but certainly perspective is one of the themes of the narrative.

So, my verdict is that this may well be a popular OT sitting alongside Drive Your Plow - it wears its learning and politics lightly (even, we might say, a little heavy handedly) but it's a nimble, knowing way of saying something serious in a witty and sardonic voice.

This was such a joy to read. For all those people who think Tokarczuk may be difficult and hard work: not at all! It's fun and accessible. The right mix of atmosphere, mystery and entertaining dialogue. I was completely transported to the wet and forested mountains of pre-war Central Europe.

Wojnicz, a young Pole, suffers from lung disease and the story begins when he arrives in the spa town of Görbersdorf, today in Southern Poland, back in 1913 then the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Because the official Kurhaus is full, he stays in a Pension for Gentlemen. The 'gentlemen' take themselves very seriously and during their daily meals and outages do little else than endlessly ponder and discuss such important manly matters as politics, history and - above all - the inferior nature of women. Their conversations are so misogynistic that it's hard to believe the novel is set just 100 years ago. And as Tokarczuk nicely points out in her author's note: all of their ridiculous statements are taken from distinguished real life thinkers and writers.

Hidden in the dark however, strange things are going on. The owner's wife suddenly dies. Death is everywhere. And everyone seems increasingly addicted to a herbal concoction that clouds the mind.

I did not read Thomas Mann before, but can imagine I would have enjoyed this even more if I had. But also without it was a clear 5 star reading experience for me.

I have been scanning NetGalley hoping to see an ARC of this since the English translation was announced, and now I’ve only gone and read it in 2 days when I’d actually wanted to savour it! Like the heady, savoury liquor the patients at this sanitarium imbibe.
I enjoyed Tokarczuk’s Drive the Plow over the Bones of the Dead, and I enjoyed Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. So I knew that I’d enjoy this! Having read The Magic Mountain definitely adds to the enjoyment of The Empusium, as it’s not just Easter eggs you’ll miss out on - it’s also the moments of sly humour and feminist riffing off Mann’s original.
Now planning to visit the site of the Guesthouse for Gentlemen in real life!