Lapvona
Ottessa Moshfegh
Lapvona
Ottessa Moshfegh
In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot in a power struggle that puts all manner of 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, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life’s few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby, as she did for many of the village’s children.
Ina’s gifts extend beyond childcare: she possesses a unique ability to communicate with the natural world. Her gift often brings her the transmission of sacred knowledge on levels far beyond those available to other villagers, however religious they might be. For some people, Ina’s home in the woods outside the village is a place to fear and to avoid, a godless place.
Among their number is Father Barnabas, the town priest and lackey for the depraved lord and governor, Villiam, whose hilltop manor contains a secret embarrassment of riches. 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 Villiam and the priest, 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 upset the old order. By year’s end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, the natural world and the spirit world will prove to be very thin indeed.
Review
Tristen Brudy
It is always a thrill opening a new book by Ottessa Moshfegh. You never know what you’re going to get. The only certainty is that it’ll be unlike anything else you’ve ever read before. Her previous novels, Eileen, My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Death in Her Hands, are as dissimilar from each other as they are from a Dickens novel. With Lapvona, Moshfegh breaks the mould again, this time tackling historical(ish) fiction. If you’re looking to be shocked, thrilled, challenged, and a little (or a lot) disgusted, Lapvona is the book for you.
Told with Moshfegh’s signature humour and depravity, the story takes place over the course of a year in a village in Lapvona – a medieval, generically European fiefdom. Banditry, famine, drought and murder abound in Lapvona. It’s hard to pin down a specific chain of events for the novel as its driven by character rather than plot. The best way to prepare you for the narrative is to give you a short description of Moshfegh’s perverted cast of characters, which includes: a consumptive lord with a predilection for little boys; a self- flagellating shepherd with a predilection for little girls; a mute nun with no sense of morality; a disabled teenage boy who is a handy stone thrower; a host of extremely pious, cabbage-eating servants; a gluttonous, atheistic priest; and an ancient and blind witch with a particularly enticing pair of breasts.
Lapvona is a tale as crude and cruel as the Middle Ages itself. If you’re already a fan of Moshfegh, then this will not disappoint. But it may turn your stomach once or twice. If you’re unfamiliar with Moshfegh’s work … well, buckle up; you’re in for a wild ride.
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