Lapvona
The unmissable Sunday Times Bestseller
-
-
3.8 • 10 Ratings
-
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
Welcome to Lapvona. In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself at the centre of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test . . .
Discover the Sunday Times bestselling novel from the author of TikTok sensation My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
'One of the most provocative reads of the year'
i NEWSPAPER
'Disturbingly funny'
OBSERVER, BOOKS OF THE YEAR
'An addictive read . . . with a chequered cast of misfits, despots and unholy souls'
THE FACE
'One of America's most exciting - and most provocative - young novelists'
FINANCIAL TIMES
'Lapvona deserves all the hype it's received and more'
i-D
'Brace yourselves'
STYLIST
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moshfegh's deliriously quirky medieval tale (after Death in Her Hands) revolves around a disabled shepherd boy's test of faith. Marek, 13, is abused by his father and raised by Ina, a midwife and witch who once nursed him as an infant. Still, Marek possesses a childlike faith in God. He'll need it. All is not well in the fiefdom of Lapvona: a plague ravages the people, a drought sours the earth, starvation spreads, and high atop a hill overlooking the village sits greedy Lord Villiam, a man who "believe that his appetite nothing but a physical symptom of his greatness" and consequently hoards all the food. Down below, Ina trades villagers psychedelic mushrooms for bread and eggs, and the mushrooms give people alternately visions of heaven and hell, either a respite from or an enhancement of the daily nightmare wrought on them by Villiam. Moshfegh's picture of medieval cruelty includes unsparing accounts of torture, rape, cannibalism, and witchcraft, and as Marek grapples with the pervasive brutality and whether remaining pure of heart is worth the trouble—or is even possible—the narrative tosses readers through a series of dizzying reversals. Throughout, 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.
Customer Reviews
No trigger warning left unflagged
Author: American, of Iranian extraction and darling of literary circles since her debut novel, ‘Eileen’ (2015), was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. FTR, I thought it should have won the Booker in 2016. (‘The Sellout’ by Paul Beatty did, but was a DNF for me.)
Plot: Essentially, it’s a fairytale of the Grimm variety rather than Disney one. Make that Uber-Grimm. There are five parts based around the seasons, starting and finishing with Spring. The setting is a fictional middle Europe in the Middle Ages. Life is hard. Religiosity abounds, and there’s buckets or violence and depravity, in both the literal and figurative sense.
The main character is a deformed (rickets is my guess) teenage boy whose mother died in childbirth and whose father likes his sheep better than his kid. (No Kiwi jokes, I promise.) The evil, if somewhat inept, overlord, who reigns terror on his serfs, gets his comeuppance in the end, although the serfs are no better off as a result. (Rather like changes of government after democratic elections nowadays).
Writing: Plot has never been Ms M’s number one priority. Historical research ditto, it seems (If you want that, read Ken Follett.) She also ditches her customary first person interior monologues here for a third person omniscient narrator and multiple POVs, which limits character development. She likes to offend though, and has never been in better form in that regard. I liked the short punchy sentences, which are a departure from her usual style. Ms M is a gifted wordsmith. Though not her best work IMO, this is worth reading if only to marvel at her uncanny ability to make words zing off the page.