Book Review

Lapvona – Dark medieval fairytale confounds at every turn

Ottessa Moshfegh’s latest novel is just as opaque and bewildering as its three predecessors

Otessa Moshfegh: an artist, but of what kind?

The epigraph to Ottessa Moshfegh’s fourth novel, Lapvona, is a Demi Lovato lyric: “I feel stupid when I pray.” Similarly, I felt stupid when I read this book.

No one comes to Moshfegh for an easy ride. Her debut novel, Eileen, centred upon a bulimic laxative-addict working in a boys’ prison. Among the disturbing and disturbed characters in her short story collection, Homesick for Another World, was a child who believed killing the correct person ...