Lapvona

Last updated
Lapvona
Lapvona.jpg
First edition (US)
Author Ottessa Moshfegh
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Penguin Press (US)
Jonathan Cape (UK)
Publication date
June 21, 2022
Media typePrint, e-book, audiobook
Pages320
ISBN 978-0-5933-0026-8 (hardcover)
Preceded by Death in Her Hands  

Lapvona is a 2022 novel by Ottessa Moshfegh. [1] It is Moshfegh's fifth novel. [2]

Contents

Synopsis

In Lapvona, a corrupt medieval fiefdom, deformed 13 year-old Marek lives with his cruel shepherd father Jude and was nursed from birth by the village witch. When Marek commits a crime, the cruel lord Villiam demands that Jude give Marek to him as reparations, and Marek goes to live in his castle.

Background

Lapvona was written by Moshfegh during the COVID-19 pandemic and was announced on April 12, 2021. [3] The novel was published by Penguin Press on June 21, 2022. [1]

Reception

At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the novel received a cumulative "Mixed" rating based on 27 reviews: 7 "Rave" reviews, 5 "Positive" reviews, 5 "Mixed" reviews, and 10 "Pan" review. [4]

In a review for the New York Times , Dwight Garner criticized the novel for lacking Moshfegh's typical wit, and that it is "narrow in its emotional range, a bleak, meandering and muddy-soled mix of fairy tale and folk horror." [5] Kirkus Reviews compared the novel to Moshfegh's earlier works and found the tone "stiff" and the plot "meandering". [2] The reviewer at Publishers Weekly , however, found the book "deliriously quirky" and declared it "a triumph". [6]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh". Penguin Random House . Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Lapvona". Kirkus Reviews . April 15, 2022. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  3. "Announcing Ottessa Moshfegh's next novel, Lapvona, coming next summer". LitHub . April 12, 2021. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  4. "Book Marks reviews of Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh". Book Marks . Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  5. "Ottessa Moshfegh's 'Lapvona' Is Gloomy Folk Horror Set Long Ago". New York Times . June 13, 2022. Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  6. "Lapvona". Publishers Weekly . March 8, 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.