‘One among a very few signal European novelists of the past quarter-century.’

‘A potent blend of horror tropes and literary references (Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann)…Readers will find much to savour.’

‘A magnificent writer.’

‘The Nobel Prize winner’s trippy new novel fuses folk horror with mystery and comedy. In a Silesian health resort in 1913, a Polish student and his fellow patients have circular, misogynistic debates fuelled by hallucinogenic local liqueur. Meanwhile, rumours swirl about mysterious deaths and woodland rituals. Tokarczuk reinvents Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain within the current tread for wellness retreat thrillers, weaving a portrait of pre-war Europe that is also an eerie feminist parable.’

‘A dark, feminist novel—atmospheric, creepy, and absolutely perfect.’

’The Empusium is an emphatic triumph—a feast of culture, both literary and popular, highbrow and low, that shows Tokarczuk writing at the peak of her powers and enjoying every moment of it…I was in thrall to this from the first page.’

‘Deft and disturbing…In Antonia Lloyd-Jones’ crisp translation, Tokarczuk tells a folk horror story with a deceptively light and knowing tone…Elegant and genuinely unsettling.’

‘An odd, fascinating book—a blackly serious joke—from an author of great daring and intelligence…The writing, in a cultivated translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, shared the easygoing gait and twinkling irony of Mann’s novel…It makes for absorbing if often mystifying reading, but what stands out most is the philosophical conflict it stages between rationality and folk belief.’

‘In Tokarczuk’s hands, the staid genre of the bildungsroman erupts with sinister possibility.’

‘A novel that in Tokarczuk’s dexterous hands transcends its own limits, further cementing the Nobel laureate as one of the most original storytellers of our age.’

‘The Nobel Laureate’s bloody and moody fairy tale will blow your mind…Tokarczuk keeps the suspense at a low boil throughout, balancing moments of terror and revolution…Until the horror and the beauty can no longer be contained, that is, and erupt into the novel’s utterly sublime conclusion. As ever, Tokarczuk’s prose—and Antonia Lloyd-Jones’ glorious translation thereof from the Polish—will knock the wind out of you…If The Empusium soars during its descriptions of stuff and setting—the witchy forest that surrounds the sick house especially seduces.’

‘Tokarczuk’s newest masterpiece is positioned to be the book of the fall. From mystery drinks and deaths to commentary upon religion and gender, this book is the literary horror story that eagerly awaits your Autumn reading list…With fall chills fast approaching, there is no better book to read. A magnificently haunting portrayal of health, death, and all that comes in between, The Empusium is one of Tokarczuk’s best works to date.’

‘Tokarczuk’s deft, dark satirical wit is on full display in The Empusium…Tokarczuk, as usual, casts her enthralling spell.’

‘Boy this is so good. This is so good.’

‘A student, Wojnicz, heads to a Polish health resort to recover from tuberculosis, but he—and the people around him—don’t seem to be getting any better. It is dark and gritty and written through a feminist lens.’

‘This is so funny…A very clever and interesting book.’

‘The pleasures of Tokarczuk’s prose are in the neat little tricks of noticing, veering into the supernatural and strange.’

‘An odd, fascinating book—a blackly serious joke—from an author of great daring and intelligence…The writing, in a cultivated translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, shares the easygoing gait and twinkling irony of Mann’s novel…It makes for absorbing if often mystifying reading, but what stands out most is the philosophical conflict it stages between rationality and folk belief.’

‘A century after the publication of The Magic Mountain, Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, blending horror story, comedy, folklore, and feminist parable with brilliant storytelling.’

‘The Empusium had a lot to live up to, but did not disappoint…It’s a gimlet-eyed book about ideas and idealogies, and the dangers of drawing neat categories in a beautifully un-neat world.’

‘A folk horror story with a deceptively light and knowing tone…Elegant and genuinely unsettling.’

‘A gleefully mischievous feminist riposte to Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain.’