Lapvona

A Novel

By: Ottessa Moshfegh

Narrated by: Ottessa Moshfegh

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

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 in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of 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 so 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 of 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.

©2022 Ottessa Moshfegh (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Moshfegh expertly creates a world with its own superstitions and laws, both timeless and topical.” —Oprah Daily

“The author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, EW's pick for the best book of 2018, turns her inimitable lens to a medieval fiefdom ruled by deeply tribal ideas of class, family, and faith. The result reads like a cracked fairy tale, both familiar and fantastically strange (June 21).” —Entertainment Weekly, 16 novels we're excited for this summer 

“No one is quite who he first seems in the latest wicked tale from macabre master Moshfegh . . . Sculpting an eerily canny fabular world of contrasts and evil, cartoonish cruelty, in her signature way, Moshfegh conjures a grotesque, disturbing story of gross inequality and senseless strife.” —Booklist  

uncomfortable

I was tricked by Anthony Jeselnik, this book is not funny. it's sad and uncomfortable.

Wow

This book is definitely something, although I don’t really get disturbed this is really a lot to take in. I absolutely loved it though, I thought that a the beginning it was supposed to be a cruel incident and the rest of the book would sorta revolve around It but after the first page it got progressively worse and I had to take multiple brakes. Somehow it found a way of pulling me into the story, it was so well written and easy to follow along that I would definitely recommend!😊(Prospective from a 14yo)

Nasty (Good)

This one is a wild, nasty, disorienting, and emotional ride- another straight up BANGER from Ottessa. It was also great to hear her read it- I love her voice and she's kinda my favorite person.

Deep twisted tale

Few can tell tales like this. And turns out she is an excellent reader (always makes a big difference). So many pearls of dark wisdom - mark of a timeless writer, like Celine, Twain, Steinbeck, can pack a world of emotion in a single sentence: “When she asked the birds which herbs to eat to heal her loneliness they answered that they knew nothing of love. That love was a distinctly human defect which god had created to counterbalance the power of human greed”. Do. Not. Miss.

Hideous violence

A cruel story with awful people all victims of superstition and poverty. The plot was interesting enough to keep me listening until the end, which was a far cry from satisfying.

disturbing but well rounded

I've read most of the books by this author and they are all disturbing but I just can't stop reading/listening to them. The time period of this book makes it seem as though it is completely different than the rest but I think the author made the same connections with hu.an behavior as she did in Eileen and Year of Rest and Relaxation. The ending left me haunted. Usually I can never listen to a book read by it's own author but Ottessa Meshfegh performed the story well. Not my favorite book by this author but still worth the listen.

Why all the good reviews?

This was like a failed Monty Python skip I'm going through a depression. Absolutely Awful.

Poetically Unjust

Such a hard review to write because this book is so great on so many levels, Absurdly funny, dark and horrific , poetically unjust, I can go on for a while, Lapvona is like a Halloween haunted house where you are uneasy the whole time you're in it and then come out and say that was great lets do it again. Lapvonas charcters are like no others and there are scenes that will haunt you for days after reading.

Moshfegh is the most genuine and unique writer in some time, her stories lack likeable or sympathetic protaganists overcoming impossible hurdles but feature real people stumbling over the hurdles of day to day life, there are no "you go girl" moments in her stories but delightfully many "oh no you didn't" ones.

Her writing is visual and very descriptive which makes her not for everyone, I find her to be matter of fact where others find her gross. It is easy to imagine Lapvonas world with its unforgettable characters and its many contrasts.

Moshfegh also does a great job narrating Lapvona and am looking forward to her next novel. These days a stand alone story writer who's books are not just trying to get you to the next one in a series is quite refreshing,

I don’t even know…

I doubt I can say anything about this book that hasn’t already been said, just thought I’d add one more to the list of people who were disgusted yet captivated by this book. It’s quite unlike anything I’ve read or listened to. The last 1/3 of the book really annoyed me bc I actually liked Lord Villiam. He was basically the one character I did like and I’m extremely annoyed about it. I really loved the book though and found Moshfegh to be a satisfactory narrator.
Also, Andrea Long Chu’s scathing review of Lapvona is what enticed me to try it out. I’m so glad I did but now I can’t decide if that was Chu’s intentions or not.

Well written. Not for everyone, but if it’s for you, you’ll give it 4 stars.

A genuinely good book. Two steps away from great. A few parts seems simply inserted for shock value. That said, there are some character studies in it that truest excel. Well done.