First published 1199
In Nazi-occupied Poland, a young doctor disturbed by his country's fate joins the staff of an insane asylum. But within these walls, he discovers a world as twisted and absurd as the one outside. Patients enact bizarre rituals, doctors treat them with cruelty, and the line between sanity and madness blurs. As the doctor navigates this surreal landscape, he is forced to confront the darkness encroaching on his own psyche. In the end, the true horror may lie not in the asylum, but in the doctor's own heart.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Poland
Period: 1939
207 pages · Hardcover · Harcourt
Content warnings: mental-illness, violence