The Empusium
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Olga Tokarczuk |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Kinga Preis |
| Original title | Empuzjon. Horror przyrodoleczniczy |
| Translator | Antonia Lloyd-Jones |
| Language | Polish |
| Publisher | Wydawnictwo Literackie |
Publication date | 1 June 2022 |
| Publication place | Kraków |
Published in English | September 2024 |
| Media type | Print (hardback), e-book, audiobook |
| Pages | 400 pages |
| ISBN | 978-83-08-07577-7 |
| OCLC | 1331408258 |
| 891.8/538 | |
| LC Class | PG7179.O37 E67 2022 |
The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story (Polish: Empuzjon. Horror przyrodoleczniczy) is a 2022 historical novel by Olga Tokarczuk. Originally published in Polish by Wydawnictwo Literackie, it was later translated to English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones and published in 2024 by Riverhead Books (US) and Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK). It was Tokarczuk's first new novel in eight years, and her first since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.[1][2][3] In September 2024, the work won the European Literature Prize.[4]
Plot
[edit]The story takes place in 1913 at Göbersdorf, a sanatorium in Lower Silesia. This medical complex, created by Dr. Hermann Brehmer in a valley in the Sudetes, is one of the first to treat tuberculosis. The young Mieczyslaw Wojnicz, a hydraulic engineering student from Lwów, arrives at the sanatorium on a cold September night to treat his lungs with the purity of the mountain air and a healthy lifestyle. During his treatment, he takes up a room in a guesthouse for gentlemen run by a man named Wilhelm Opitz and meets other patients including the Catholic professor Longis Lukas, the Viennese socialist August August, the German student of Fine Arts Thilo von Hahn and even a secret police adviser. In this place cut off from the world and its occupations, these men discuss religion, culture, politics and especially their favorite subject, the nature of women. Listening to them in the shadows, the mysterious Empousai observe them and lie in wait.
Adaptation
[edit]On 12 May 2023, a stage adaptation of the novel directed by Robert Talarczyk premiered at the Silesian Theatre in Katowice.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Sacks, Sam (18 September 2024). "Fiction: 'The Empusium' by Olga Tokarczuk". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
- ^ Janney, Matthew (26 September 2024). "The Empusium — Olga Tokarczuk's carnivalesque homage to Thomas Mann". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
- ^ Illingworth, Dustin (24 September 2024). "In Olga Tokarczuk's 'Empusium,' women are scarce — or so it seems". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
- ^ "'The Empusium' wins European Literature Prize 2024". Letterenfonds. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
- ^ "Empuzjon". Teatr Śląski im. St. Wyspiańskiego w Katowicach (in Polish). Retrieved 3 October 2024.