Rowan the Strange [Hardcover]

Hearn has the skill of a conjuror (The Sunday Times )

Hearn writes with great brio and style (Adele Geras, The Guardian )

An amazing piece of fiction that deserves to be devoured. (South China Morning Post )

A powerful and compelling story of life in a mental asylum at the start of the Second World War.

Had Rowan been invited to predict how the rest of that day would go his list would have gone something like this: 1. Breakfast 2. A nice long talk with the doctors 3. Lunch 4. A rest, or a walk in the fresh air 5. Another talk with the doctors 6. Supper 7. Read comics for a bit 8. Bed If asked what he would like to happen the list would have been much the same, only with more time for reading, and the proviso that nobody got to see him naked any more. He would also have liked to be smiled at again by the young nurse, Sarah Jane. But that was a private hope, not something to be shared. He would have got "Bed" right but that's about all. As the second World War begins, Rowan is diagnosed as schizophrenic and sent away to a hospital where the latest treatments are available. But the treatments are experimental still - and nobody predicts the effect they will have on Rowan...