Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk ([tɔˈkart͡ʂuk]; born 29 January 1962) is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual who has been described as one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful authors of her generation. In 2018, she won the Man Booker International Prize for her novel Flights (translated by Jennifer Croft), becoming the first Polish writer to do so. In 2019, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Tokarczuk is particularly noted for the mythical tone of her writing. She trained as a psychologist at the University of Warsaw and published a collection of poems, several novels, as well as other books with shorter prose works. Flights won the Nike Award, Poland's top literary prize, in 2008. She attended the 2010 Edinburgh Book Festival to discuss her book Primeval and Other Times and other work. With her novel Księgi jakubowe (The Books of Jacob), Tokarczuk won the Nike Award again in 2015. In the same year, Tokarczuk received the German-Polish International Bridge Prize, a recognition extended to persons especially accomplished in the promotion of peace, democratic development and mutual understanding among the people and nations of Europe.
En schlesisk sanatorieby i 1913. På sanatoriet Görbersdorf for foden af bjergene har lægerne i mere end halvtreds år specialiseret sig i at behandle halslidelser.
Mieczyslaw Wojnicz, en studerende fra Lwów (nu Lviv i Ukraine), ankommer til sanatoriet med håbet om, at et ophold netop her vil helbrede ham - eller i det mindste stoppe udviklingen af hans tuberkulose. Om aftenen flyder drinksene ned i de syge mænds halse, og Mieczyslaw knytter venskab med patienter fra Wien, Königsberg, Breslau og Berlin. Natten lang diskuterer de tidens største problemer. Står Europa på kanten af en krig? Monarki eller demokrati? Eksisterer ondskab? Og kan man udlede af en anonym tekst, om den er skrevet af en mand eller af en kvinde?
Men det er ikke kun filosofiske spørgsmål, der trænger sig ind i mændenes midte. Mieczyslaw hører chokerende rygter om tragiske begivenheder i bjergene, der omkranser sanatoriet. Og mens han forsøger at finde ud af sandheden om sig selv, bliver han hvirvlet mere og mere ind i de uhyggelige begivenheder. Alt imens ondskabens øjne allerede har låst blikket fast på ham, går virkeligheden langsomt i opløsning omkring ham.
Den polske forfatter Olga Tokarczuk, som modtog Nobelprisen i litteratur i 2018, afslører i romanen Empusion de sandheder, som vi enten lukker øjnene for eller vil ignorere for enhver pris.
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