First published 2015
William Blake finds himself trapped within the walls of a Victorian-era mental institution in London. The visionary poet and artist struggles against the constraints of asylum life while his extraordinary mind continues to generate the mystical visions that both define his genius and mark him as mad in the eyes of his captors. Blake battles to maintain his artistic identity and spiritual beliefs as doctors attempt to cure him of what they see as delusions. The asylum becomes a battleground between conformity and creative freedom, between medical authority and prophetic vision. Kilroy places readers inside Blake's experience of confinement, exploring how society treats those whose minds operate beyond conventional boundaries. The novel examines the tension between Blake's inner world of angels and prophecies and the harsh reality of institutional control. At its heart, this is a story about the price of being different and the resilience of the creative spirit under pressure.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, psychological-thriller, 19th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: conformity-vs-freedom, institutional-control, resilience-of-the-creative-spirit
Setting: London, Victorian-Era
Period: 19th-Century
66 pages · Hardcover · GalleryPress
Content warnings: mental-illness