The novel is set in a tuberculosis sanatorium on the eve of World War I. Its main protagonist is a young Pole who arrives at the sanatorium with a mild case of TB.
According to Fitzcarraldo Editions, the publisher, 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."
Published in Poland in 2022, The Empusium has been translated into English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, whose credits also include Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.
The shortlist of six titles vying for the Dublin Literary Award will be revealed on April 7, while the award’s winner will be announced on May 21 during the International Literature Festival Dublin (ILFD).
Tokarczuk was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature “for a narrative imagination that with encyclopaedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life."
(mk/gs)