WWTTM Benign Book Dictatorship: Next Month: Asylum

Not a huge response for Disquiet, although thumbs up from 100pc of participants, so I am undaunted. However, I am also very low on very short books, so this month's is a normal length. But it's summer, so what better way to pass the time than sitting in the sun reading Patrick McGrath's Asylum

This is one of those books I cannot believe is not read, marveled over and discussed at tedious length at every party that you go to. It was recommended to me by fellow author Jessica Ruston, but it was a while before I picked it up, probably because, as I have since discovered when trying on innumerable occasions to purchase it for someone else, it is simply not very often stocked in shops. (WHY???) Anyway, I picked it up in a bookshop and read the first page and I knew straight away that I had to have it and to read it immediately, which I did.

Set in 1959, Asylum tells the story of Stella Raphael, whose husband takes a job as deputy superintendent of a hospital for the criminally insane, and who has an intense sexual relationship with one of the inmates. But it's also the kind of book which starts off seeming to be about one thing and then later on you realise that another, hidden story has been being told underneath. It's an incredibly gripping, exciting read which leaves you with the question: is love itself a form of insanity?

Off you go. Meet back here on July 16th.

PS I do seem to specialise in books that have featured Natasha Richardson in the adaptations; the image is of her as Stella.