The Empusium Audiobook By Olga Tokarczuk cover art

The Empusium

A Health Resort Horror Story

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The Empusium

By: Olga Tokarczuk
Narrated by: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Natasha Soudek
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AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER!

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

“A folk horror story with a deceptively light and knowing tone … elegant and genuinely unsettling.”–The New York Times Book Review

The Nobel Prize winner’s latest masterwork, set in a sanitarium on the eve of World War I, probes the horrors that lie beneath our most hallowed ideas

September 1913. A young Pole suffering from tuberculosis arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen in the village of Görbersdorf, a health resort in the Silesian mountains. Every evening the residents gather to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur and debate the great issues of the day: Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women born inferior? War or peace? Meanwhile, disturbing things are happening in the guesthouse and the surrounding hills. Someone—or something—seems to be watching, attempting to infiltrate this cloistered world. Little does the newcomer realize, as he tries 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, with signature boldness, inventiveness, humor, and bravura.

©2024 Olga Tokarczuk (P)2024 Penguin Audio Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Witty Health

Critic reviews

“Deft and disturbing. . . In Antonia Lloyd-Jones’s crisp translation, Tokarczuk tells a folk horror story with a deceptively light and knowing tone. . . elegant and genuinely unsettling.”—Hari Kunzru, The New York Times Book Review

“Pulling from folktales, mythology, art, and literature, Tokarczuk’s novel spins a story that feels eerily familiar and yet totally new… Just when you think you have this novel in your sight, it shimmers into something else entirely.”—The Atlantic

“A marvelous reframing of The Magic Mountain … [that] can be enjoyed—and may even be more enjoyable—on its own merits … Lloyd-Jones’s uniformly excellent translation of The Empusium is a much breezier read."—Boston Globe
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I thought it would be more of a typical horror book. what is the horror are the misogynistic men in the book.

Not really A Horror Story

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This was a slow moving plot, in much the way I feel when I read Dostoyevsky, and has lots of long conversations of men expounding their views on all things. There were some absolutely creepy parts on several levels for me as a woman reader. And that is definitely the point.

It was beautifully written, I felt myself in the mountains many times, and the conclusion was 5 stars for me. Which makes me think overall it deserves 5 stars, but I know many people will struggle with the pace of the book.

I'm still thinking about it weeks later

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An excellent performance of a genius novel. The weaving of history, psychology, feminism, myth and mystery… she’s done it again. A slow meditation, but always curious and compelling.

Fascinating and perfectly performed

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I loved how smooth the story is weaved. Nothing is happening until it already over. The quality of reading and production is excellent. Far too often, good books are produced so poorly as to be unlistenable. Not this one. The reader enunciates the words clearly and enlivens the text, so it is easy to understand and follow.

Great book, and even better performance and production

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Well written story that recreates a place in time very well.
However, this title was listed in the “horror” section. In my opinion that does a disservice to an otherwise well researched tale, its locale, and the research involved in the above mentioned misogyny.
There is actually a teeny element of horror but honestly I was so constantly horrified by the men/misogyny that the event was the lesser of the evils.

Never ending Misogyny

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A beautiful story with a character who has such a gentle disposition that it is a strange comfort to experience such a dangerous world with them

Best read of the year so far

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It was all fantastic- enjoyed the character of MW the most and the storyline was superb. A great satire of misogyny as well as a social statement of acceptance of all people. Great feeling of magical realism as well.

The landscape narrative

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I was surprised that 3/4ths of the book was focused on the banter between a group of men-mainly surrounding the nature of women as the lesser sex. I thought that the conversations were going to be nested into a more fully developed narrative related to a supernatural revelation of the divine feminine to juxtapose the constrained and ingrained social ideology of the early 1900s. But this isn’t fully realized based on the evolution of the plot. The actual story that transpires as the men sit and drink and talk doesn’t necessarily feel as if it’s simmering in the background with an amount of tension. There are small references that come up for air along the way followed by a vague but confusing climax at the tail end. I’m trying not to give any plot points away, but the story felt lopsided after the fact. The book felt like so much languorous talking, with a brief pause for action that pace-wise seemed hurried and vague.

Dialogue-Focused Narrative

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Tokarczuk’s books open into a more reverent, spiritual engagement with the natural world, and this is something Western folks desperately need right now. This is not the sappy, reductive version of eco-spirituality we see in a lot of popular books. It’s something more profound, darker, sublime, unshakeable, thought-provoking…

It took me a while to get into this one. I found it challenging to listen to the men’s conversations, as I’ve already spent too much of life hearing such things. But it was very, very worth it. Tip: listen to those sections on high speed. (If only we could do this in daily life.)

I thought the narrator did a wonderful job, but I would’ve preferred someone without such a strong American accent. (fur-miliar, minuti-ay) It kept bringing me out of the Silesian forest and reminding me that I was listening to a production.

Brilliant

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This is a well written book on the horrors of misogyny, using the actual text of some of the West’s greatest (male) thinkers and writers to craft a horror story in which the men get their comeuppance. I do not want to reveal much of the plot, but I found the writing compelling and haunting. Great follow up by a Noble Prize winner. I highly recommend this book.

Phenomenal book on the horrors of misogyny

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