An Instant New York Times Bestseller! “ Lapvona flips all the conventions of familial and
parental relations putting hatred where love should be or a negotiation where grief should be
. . . Through a mix of witchery deception murder abuse grand delusion ludicrous
conversations and cringeworthy moments of bodily disgust Moshfegh creates a world that you
definitely don’t want to live in but from which you can’t look away.” — The Atlantic In a
village buffeted by natural disasters a motherless shepherd boy finds himself part of a power
struggle that puts the community’s faith to a savage test in a spellbinding novel that
represents Ottessa Moshfegh’s most exciting leap yet Little Marek the abused and delusional
son of the village shepherd believes his mother died giving birth to him. One of Marek’s few
consolations is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife Ina who suckled him when he
was a baby. For some people Ina’s ability to receive transmissions of sacred knowledge from
the natural world is a godsend. For others Ina’s home in the woods is a godless place. The
people’s desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests
at heart is put to a cruel test by their depraved lord and governor especially in this year of
record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord’s
family new and occult forces arise to upset the old order. By year’s end the veil between
blindness and sight life and death and the natural world and the spirit world will prove to
be very thin indeed.
