THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERShocking and enlightening... touching and affecting DAILY MAILA masterpiece . . . one of the great novels of this or any other century INDEPENDENTAs young boys both Jacques Rebire and Thomas Midwinter become fascinated with trying to understand the human mind. As psychiatrists their quest takes them from the squalor of the Victorian lunatic asylum to the crowded lecture halls of the renowned Professor Charcot in Paris from the heights of the Sierra Madre in California to the plains of unexplored Africa.As the concerns of the old century fade and the First World War divides Europe the two mens volatile relationship develops and changes but is always tempered by one exceptional woman Thomass sister Sonia.Structurally intricate yet intensely focused on the lives of individuals . . . replete with interesting ideas and . . . exceptionally fine writing OBSERVERA bold and remarkable work of imagination . . . to write so well for so many pages is an amazing feat of intellectual athleticism SUNDAY TELEGRAPHSebastian Faulks Sunday Times bestseller September 2023