Ottessa Moshfegh Books

When I began writing *Lapvona*, I found myself drawn to the brutality—and absurdity—of human faith when confronted by the forces of nature. This novel is a mirror held up to the human heart when stripped of civilization’s illusions. You will journey with me to a medieval village named Lapvona, isola...

From Lapvona

Lapvona opens in the harsh rhythm of peasant life, where Jude, a shepherd consumed by religious guilt, raises his son Marek. Marek is deformed, his back bent in a way that makes him both pitied and scorned by others. Jude tells him that suffering is holy—that the body’s imperfections are signs of di...

From Lapvona

Ina enters the narrative as a figure of mystery—a woman who has lived beyond the limits of ordinary time. She once nursed Marek as a child, though Jude has kept her hidden from his son’s memories. Ina’s presence in Lapvona is almost supernatural; she is beloved by the villagers and visited by those ...

From Lapvona

My narrator begins as a young woman in Manhattan, living off the residues of family wealth, inhabiting a pristine apartment filled with objects that mean nothing to her. She works at a trendy art gallery, though the people around her—the curators, artists, buyers—all appear hollow, caught in a loop ...

From My Year of Rest and Relaxation

In order to sleep indefinitely, the narrator turns to Dr. Tuttle—a caricature of psychiatric incompetence, a woman whose office is chaos and whose prescriptions flow freely. Dr. Tuttle never listens closely, often misremembers names and diagnoses, and yet becomes a crucial enabler of the narrator’s ...

From My Year of Rest and Relaxation