The Mad Women’s Ball

A New York Times best historical novel of the year,adapted as a major film for Amazon Primethis feminist literary thriller is set in Paris’s infamous Salp├¬tri├¿re asylum–now in paperback The Salp├¬tri├¿re Asylum: Paris1885. Dr. Charcot holds all of Paris in thrall with his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad and cast out from society. But the truth is much more complicated–these women are often simply inconvenientunwanted wivesthose who have lost something preciouswayward daughtersor girls born from adulterous relationships. For Parisian societythe highlight of the year is the Lenten ball–the Mad Women’s Ball–when the great and good come to gawk at the patients of the Salp├¬tri├¿re dressed up in their finery for one night only. For the women themselvesit is a rare moment of hope. Genevieve is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister Blandineshe shunned religion and placed her faith in both the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Charcot and science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eug├⌐niethe 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family that has locked her away in the asylum. Because Eug├⌐nie has a secret: she sees spirits. Inspired by the scandalousbanned work that all of Paris is talking aboutThe Book of SpiritsEug├⌐nie is determined to escape from the asylum–and the bonds of her gender–and seek out those who will believe in her. And for that she will need Genevieve’s help . . .