September 1913, the Görbersdorf health-resort (nowadays, Sokołowsko in Lower Silesia). Here, at the foot of the mountains, for over half of a century operates one of the first in the world and famous around Europe specialist sanatorium curing “chest and throat” conditions.
Mieczysław Wojnicz, a student from Lviv, comes to the resort with hope that modern methods and crystal-clear air stop the progression of his disease, and maybe even cure him entirely. The diagnosis leaves no hope, however – it’s tuberculosis.
Mieczysław Wojnicz, a student from Lviv, comes to the resort with hope that modern methods and crystal-clear air stop the progression of his disease, and maybe even cure him entirely. The diagnosis leaves no hope, however – it’s tuberculosis.
In the Boarding House for Men, where he settles, he gets to know other patients. Coming from Vienna, Königsberg, Breslau and Berlin, they tirelessly discuss the most important issues of the world. Is Europe threatened by war? Monarchy or democracy? Do demons exist? Can we guess who wrote a text by reading it – a woman or a man?
But it isn’t only those questions which occupy the patients. Wojnicz hears some terrifying stories about tragic events in the mountains surroundings of the sanatorium. Even though he is busy hiding the truth about himself, the mystery of dreadful accidents fascinates him more and more. What he doesn’t know is that he has already become a target of the dark forces.
In “Empuzjon”, Olga Tokarczuk reveals to readers truths about the world which we either do not see or we don’t want to admit at all costs.
Premiere: 1.06.2022
Source: Wydawnictwo Literackie, tran. Katarzyna Janusik
