The Nobelist\'s latest masterwork, set in a sanitarium on the eve of World War I, probes the horrors that lie beneath our most hallowed ideas.
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..
Little does Mieczyslaw realize, as he attempts to unravel both the truths within himself and the mystery of the sinister forces beyond, that they have already chosen their next target.
Someone--or something--seems to be watching them and attempting to infiltrate their world.
As stories of shocking events in the surrounding highlands reach the men, a sense of dread builds.
Every day, its residents gather in the dining room to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur, to obsess over money and status, and to discuss the great issues of the day: Will there be war? Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women inherently inferior? Meanwhile, disturbing things are beginning to happen in the guesthouse and its surroundings.
In September 1913, Mieczyslaw, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at Wilhelm Opitz\'s Guesthouse for Gentlemen, a Health Resort in what is now western Poland.
The Nobelist\'s latest masterwork, set in a sanitarium on the eve of World War I, probes the horrors that lie beneath our most hallowed ideas
