Lapvona

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

In the land of Lapvona, the lord of the land Villiam is cheating the local villagers of their food, their water, their livelihoods. Grotesque and ridiculous, he marries the pregnant and tongueless ex-nun Agata, whom he believes will make him God, and his son will be the second Christ.

It's a land of murder, cannibalism, incest and rape. Despite all of the characters' individual inadequacies and madness, you find yourself completely engrossed in each character's fate, be it Marek, Jude, Agata, Villiam, Lispeth, Ina, Father Barnabas. It's an anti-fairytale within a fairytale - maybe this is what hell on earth looks like? Is it an indictment of humanity, of religion, of grotesque despots?

An original work of brilliance - singular, funny, horrifying and entertaining in equal measure.

© Ottessa Moshfegh 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Ottessa MoshfeghOttessa MoshfeghVintage Digital

Dark Humour

Fantasy

Fiction

Genre Fiction

Historical Fiction

Literary Fiction

Literature & Fiction

Magic

Medieval

World Literature

Scary

Comedy

Dark Humour Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Magic Medieval World Literature Scary Comedy

Critic reviews

Compelling... Moshfegh's bold venture beyond her comfort zone in Lapvona is a welcome promise of how much more she has to offer American literature today.

What impresses here is not so much Moshfegh's abilities with character or narrative, or even her language . . . as the qualities Lapvona shares with a Francis Bacon painting: depicting in blood-red vitality, without morals or judgment, the human animal in its native chaos.

Moshfegh expertly creates a world with its own superstitions and laws, both timeless and topical.

Moshfegh's genius is her ability to rip away the veil, revealing the horrors beneath, in writing so compelling, and bleakly funny, that we can't bear to look away.

A witty, vicious novel.. . Moshfegh is one of our most thrilling chroniclers of the abject

Booker-shortlisted Ottessa Moshfegh is likely to out-weird most things published next year - set in a medieval fiefdom, could it be a work of genius, too? (Stephanie Cross)

Deliriously quirky medieval tale . . . Moshfegh brings her trademark fascination with the grotesque to depictions of the pandemic, inequality, and governmental corruption, making them feel both uncanny and all too familiar. It's a triumph.

[A] truly unique novel.

Moshfegh writes brilliantly bizarre. Her arresting fourth novel continues this tradition.

Despite its medieval milieu, Lapvona is a quintessential Moshfegh book. It has the warped earthiness of the author's first two novels... [and] a powerful undercurrent of allegory.

Most relevant

I don't think the categories really do this justice; all fiction is a kind of fantasy and this is like a dark fairy tale. A story one makes up of a small world with simple elements, just here populated with sometimes dark detail, especially when contrasted with the normal. It is not horror or superficial or obvious, but illuminates as light through the crack in a little opened door, what is in our dark minds.