Where Madness Lies: A Novel
Jan 2021 · John Hunt Publishing
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344
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About this ebook
'A masterful novel. Where Madness Lies unfolds against the backdrop of the Holocaust and seamlessly reflects back to us our own perilous times. Told with utter insight and beauty.' Annie Weatherwax, author of All We Had, now a major motion picture.
Germany, 1934. Rigmor, a young Jewish woman is a patient at Sonnenstein, a premier psychiatric institution known for their curative treatments. But with the tide of eugenics and the Nazis' rise to power, Rigmor is swept up in a campaign to rid Germany of the mentally ill. USA, 1984. Sabine, battling crippling panic and depression commits herself to McLean Hospital, but in doing so she has unwittingly agreed to give up her baby. Linking these two generations of women is Inga, who did everything in her power to help her sister, Rigmor. Now with her granddaughter, Sabine, Inga is given a second chance to free someone she loves from oppressive forces, both within and without. This is a story about hope and redemption, about what we pass on, both genetically and culturally. It is about the high price of repression, and how one woman, who lost nearly everything, must be willing to reveal the failures of the past in order to save future generations. With chilling echoes of our time, Where Madness Lies is based on a true story of the author's own family.
Germany, 1934. Rigmor, a young Jewish woman is a patient at Sonnenstein, a premier psychiatric institution known for their curative treatments. But with the tide of eugenics and the Nazis' rise to power, Rigmor is swept up in a campaign to rid Germany of the mentally ill. USA, 1984. Sabine, battling crippling panic and depression commits herself to McLean Hospital, but in doing so she has unwittingly agreed to give up her baby. Linking these two generations of women is Inga, who did everything in her power to help her sister, Rigmor. Now with her granddaughter, Sabine, Inga is given a second chance to free someone she loves from oppressive forces, both within and without. This is a story about hope and redemption, about what we pass on, both genetically and culturally. It is about the high price of repression, and how one woman, who lost nearly everything, must be willing to reveal the failures of the past in order to save future generations. With chilling echoes of our time, Where Madness Lies is based on a true story of the author's own family.
Ratings and reviews
5.0
1 review
brf1948
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February 1, 2021
I received a free electronic ARC of this historical novel from Netgalley, Sylvia True, and John Hunt Publishing LTD - Top Hat Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Sylvia True writes a crisp tale covering an aspect of WWII in Germany that is not often addressed. Actually Where Madness Lies is a timeline of the growth - and lack thereof - in psychiatric care in the last century both in Europe and in the U.S. This was a hard book to read, especially in these pandemic days when we can't picture going on like this for much longer without going crazy. Watching our president stumble around like a madman. It is however essential that we do all keep abreast of the growth and expansion of the care of the mentally ill. And Sylvia True takes us there. Read it, please, and keep in mind that every family has a member who is just that little bit 'off'. Who is your's, and how are they thriving?
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About the author
Sylvia True, author of the popular novel The Wednesday Group, was born in Manchester, England to parents who were refugees from Germany. She moved to the US at the age of five, and now lives in Massachusetts with her husband and dogs where she teaches high school chemistry.
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