Ottessa Moshfegh, Lapvona

- This new novel from US author Ottessa Moshfegh is quite simply outstanding. With fierce intellect she constructs a potent witches brew out of a medieval small village story. It's absolutely relentless in painting depravity and sheer evil, while giving it the standard Christian gloss the period demands. 

- She doesn't spare the reader from the ugliness of life and death in that time of ignorance and cruelty. The village priest's black garments signify the opposite of enlightenment. 

- Broken relationships, lies, violence and corruption are the norm in the village, and evil reigns supreme. Villiam is the overlord and resides in an enormous manor situated on a mountain overlooking the village. He's a liar, a thief and a complete lowlife. ‘He couldn’t clean the shit from his own arsehole’, as Father Barnabas at one point says of him. He just feasts and drinks and requires entertainment from his servants, who are consigned to eating just cabbage. 

- Sheep herder Jude and his deformed son Marek (aged 13) are central to the story, as is Agata, Marek's mother. Ina the old, blind, wise, yet scheming wet nurse is also a key character.   

- Summer brings a long drought, with crop failure, insect pestilence, starvation, and even cannibalism. But the gardens around the manor stayed green and flourishing with vegetables and fruit and cows, because Villiam had hoarded the water in a private reservoir upstream. 

- All Moshfegh's characters, no matter how minor, are well drawn and brought vividly to life. While it's hardly original to set novels in medieval/pre-enlightenment times that explore social, political, religious and economic realities, Lapvona is surely unique in being such a relentless portrayal of pure evil and ugliness. There are some wrong notes, including a touch of comic melodrama and a meaningless subplot of fantasy, both of which run counter to the novel's dark realism, but nevertheless the overall experience is immensely gratifying. 

- If you enjoyed Moshfegh's last novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, as I certainly did, you will feast on this. It's darker, more demanding, but equally as satisfying. What an extraordinary talent she is.