'A masterful novel. Where Madness Lies unfolds against the backdrop of the Holocaust and seamlessly reflects back to us our own perilous times. Told with utter insight and beauty.' Annie Weatherwax, author of All We Had, now a major motion picture.
Germany, 1934. Rigmor, a young Jewish woman is a patient at Sonnenstein, a premier psychiatric institution known for their curative treatments. But with the tide of eugenics and the Nazis' rise to power, Rigmor is swept up in a campaign to rid Germany of the mentally ill. USA, 1984. Sabine, battling crippling panic and depression commits herself to McLean Hospital, but in doing so she has unwittingly agreed to give up her baby. Linking these two generations of women is Inga, who did everything in her power to help her sister, Rigmor. Now with her granddaughter, Sabine, Inga is given a second chance to free someone she loves from oppressive forces, both within and without. This is a story about hope and redemption, about what we pass on, both genetically and culturally. It is about the high price of repression, and how one woman, who lost nearly everything, must be willing to reveal the failures of the past in order to save future generations. With chilling echoes of our time, Where Madness Lies is based on a true story of the author's own family.
'Absorbing and intelligent, Where Madness Lies is a brave and uplifting reflection on an ever-sensitive subject. With deftly-rendered characters, True illustrates just how strong the connections are between past and present.'
'Sylvia True’s novel is a voyage into the madness of madness, tracing the Nazis’ seduction of Germany into the moral catastrophe of racial hygiene. The narrative is written in the voices of two women you can’t stop caring about. True tells a story of urgent and deeply consequential familial love across three generations.'
'…an intimate page-turner that is full of heart. This brave novel explores a little-known and horrifying footnote of the Holocaust, as well as longtime patriarchal tendencies to use women's mental health against them, especially as a means of gaining power and control. Engrossing and devastating, Where Madness Lies reminds us of how much is at stake today, as democracy is threatened and fascism looms large.'
