The Illness Lesson

"Feels like both a classical ghost story and like a modern (and very timely) scream of female outrage. A masterpiece " ELIZABETH GILBERT "You want to know how horrifying things happened while decent people looked on and did nothing? Read this novel " MARY BETH KEANE "Stunningly good . . . Gorgeous and frightening in equal measure. It dazzled me" LENI ZUMAS It is 1871. At the farm of Samuel Hood and his daughter, Caroline, a mysterious flock of red birds has descended. Samuel, whose fame as a philosopher is waning, takes the birds'' appearance as an omen that the time is ripe for his newest venture. He will start a school for young women, guiding their intellectual development as he has so carefully guided his daughter''s. Despite Caroline''s misgivings, Samuel''s vision - revolutionary, as always; noble, as always; full of holes, as always - takes shape. It''s not long before the students begin to manifest bizarre symptoms: rashes, seizures, verbal tics, night wanderings. In desperate, the school turns to the ministering of a sinister physician - just as Caroline''s body, too, begins its betrayal. As the girls'' condition worsens, Caroline must confront the all-male, all-knowing authorities of her world, the ones who insist the voices of the sufferers are unreliable. Written in intensely vivid prose and brimming with insight, The Illness Lesson is a powerful exploration of women''s bodies, women''s minds and the time-honoured tradition of doubting both.

Product details

• Authors: Clare Beams
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.02.2020
• EAN: 9780857526328
• ISBN: 978-0-85752-632-8
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 153 mm x 234 mm x 21 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Historical, FICTION / Women, FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Psychological, FICTION / Small Town & Rural, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Modern and contemporary fiction, Historical crime and mysteries, Gender studies: women and girls, Modern and contemporary Fiction (post 1945)