Un tour de force de la Premio Nobel polaca: una mirada feminista sobre la Europa de principios de siglo. Gorbensdorf, Baja Silesia, 1913. El joven polaco llega en busca de aire puro y de una cura para su tuberculosis en el prestigioso sanatorio local. Se aloja en una pensión, donde coincide con otros enfermos de toda Europa. Por las tardes, entonados por el potente licor local, conversan sobre lo divino y lo humano. Y entre tanto, en ese idílico paraje suceden cosas inquietantes.
September 1913. A young Pole suffering from tuberculosis arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen in the village of Görbersdorf, a health resort in the Silesian mountains. Every evening the residents gather to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur and debate the great issues of the day: Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women born inferior? War or peace? Meanwhile, disturbing things are happening in the guesthouse and the surrounding hills. Someone—or something—seems to be watching, attempting to infiltrate this cloistered world. Little does the newcomer realize, as he tries to unravel both the truths within himself and the mystery of the sinister forces beyond, that they have already chosen their next target. A century after the publication of The Magic Mountain, Olga Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, with signature boldness, inventiveness, humor, and bravura.