AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER! “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 ...

The Empusium is the rare book that truly comes together at the conclusion. A story about a number of men getting treatment at a remote spa, Tokarczuk's story is an intriguing thriller that holds its cards very closely. While all of the main characters are men, criticism and danger to women are ever-present in the story, from the strange and unremarked death of the director's wife at the start to the constant pontification of the guests. What makes the novel work is the way Tokarczuk slowly reveals the complexity of gender of the characters while building a compelling mythology of her folk horror. Much of the novel drifts in the slowness and lethargy of the sanitarium and there's no push to resolution. But the story brings together the threads of gender and horror in a remarkable conclusion that justifies the entire journey. It's a really elegant novel that rewards the reader's journey. NUBClub thoroughly endorses this one.