Olga Tokarczuk: Empuzjon (Empusium)

The latest addition to my website isOlga Tokarczuk‘s Empuzjon (Empusium). The novel is set in 1913 in a Magic Mountain-like tuberculosis sanatorium. Our hero is Mieczyslaw Wojnicz, a young Polish student of hydroengineering from Lwow now Lviv. We mainly follow Wojnicz and the other denizens of the boarding house where he is staying. Strange things happen, from the death of the landlady to the strange deaths of a young man every November. We learn Wojnicz’s back story – his mother died soon after he was born and his father is disappointed that his son has not become a manly soldier. We also follow the course of treatment which works for some but not for others. However, we are building up to November…

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