Author: Olga Tokarczuk
Translator: Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Publisher: Fitzcarraldo
Paperback
One of our books of the year 2024
Enya says: Dubbed by Tokarczuk as a retelling of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, The Empusium unfolds into a trippy read, where protagonist Hans Castorp, a 24-year-old sanitation engineer arrives at Görbersdorf sanitarium with a mild case of TB. With forests floors covered in psychedelic mushrooms, crones and strange behaviour at the guesthouse it soon becomes clear that many of the guests are not dying of the diseases they entered the health resort with. The prose is muddled, alongside the narrative, giving the reader a similar feverish nausea and paranoia as the patients within.