THE EMPUSIUM

In a work that harks back to The Magic Mountain, a young Pole seeks treatment for tuberculosis.

In the latest from Nobel Prize–winner Tokarczuk, a young man suffering from tuberculosis seeks respite for his illness at a sanatorium in the Silesian mountains. When Mieczysław Wojnicz finds the resort itself full, he rents a room at the Guesthouse for Gentlemen, a small inn owned by Wilhelm Opitz, where, almost immediately, strange things start to happen: For one thing, Wojnicz starts hearing a cooing sound that seems to emanate from the attic; for another, the local herbal liqueur the men drink in the evenings might be affecting them in not-entirely-natural ways. But the main thrust of this novel, which repeatedly calls to mind Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, with which it shares a time period and setting, appears to be located in the debates that spring up between the men at the guesthouse, though Wojnicz rarely participates. “The subjects recurred, vanished and returned,” Tokarczuk writes. “Does man have a soul? Does he always act selfishly? Monarchy or democracy? Is socialism an opportunity for mankind? Can one tell whether a text was written by a man or a woman? Are women responsible enough to be allowed voting rights?” This is the direction in which the debates inevitably lead: the differences between men and women, and the ultimate, inevitable inferiority of women. The book, which is notably lacking in female characters, returns to this topic again and again, in increasingly subtle ways. But gender is just one of the mysteries at play here. Why won’t Wojnicz undress for the doctor? Why does another patient keep warning Wojnicz about violent deaths that supposedly occur at the sanatorium each year? Tokarczuk’s latest work reckons with some of the major intellectual questions of the 20th century while simultaneously spinning a mysterious—and spooky—web of intrigue and suspense.

A crucial addition to Tokarczuk’s oeuvre.