Summary and Reviews of The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk

Media Reviews

BookPage Olga Tokarczuk's deft, dark satirical wit is on full display in The Empusium, which challenges the rigid patriarchal world of pre-WWI Europe with horror and humor.

The Guardian The Polish Nobel winner ladles up a deliciously creepy revenge tale in this satirical spin on Thomas Mann's 100-year-old masterpiece The Magic Mountain.

Booklist This rich gothic novel set in 1913 is certainly haunted, but also rife with social commentary on gender dysphoria, inequality, and prejudice. Readers will come for the eerie atmosphere but stay for the searing critique of society's tendency to discard its most vulnerable if it means maintaining a semblance of safety.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 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.

Library Journal The gothic elements keep the blood stirring.

Publishers Weekly Tokarczuk concocts a potent blend of horror tropes and literary references (Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann) as she realizes the potential of her tale's uncommon setting—a community set apart by the omnipresence of sickness and death, where the rules of civilized propriety give way to more fantastic possibilities. Readers will find much to savor.

Reader Reviews

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