Asylum

“Nina Shope is such a fierce, precise, and radical writer. The power of her vision and her abundant compassion shine through on every page.” —George Saunders, New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo

“With her second book, Nina Shope has outdone herself. Written with tremendous poise and uncommon power, Asylum is a fierce, fascinating, and often truly frightening recreation of the gendered power dynamics at work in the world of 19^th century French medicine. Shope’s narrator is a marvel and her portrait of the famous Docteur Charcot, indelible. I’m jealous of those who still have this bracing literary journey ahead of rather than behind them. Read. This. Book!” —Laird Hunt, author of Zorrie

“Lush and vertiginous, Shope's Asylum offers a pointed analysis of obsession and power early in the development of psychiatry. A fierce look at how some bodies strive to control other bodies by submitting them to the tyranny of the gaze, of the camera, of touch, always in the name of health. And yet, how easy it is for the tables to be turned, for the observed to imperceptibly slip into the role of observer...” —Brian Evenson, author of The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell

“In Asylum, Nina Shope fulfills the promise of her debut, Hangings, with another work that sears the literary firmament. This is a dangerous text, cutting edge text, as bold as Augustine herself, an indelible journey into the human condition with antagonists caught up in a relentlessly transformative combat of codependency, stripping them of all pretense as they struggle for psychic survival crippled with vulnerabilities both terrible and redemptive. Shope achieves tour de force narrative that at its darkest deepest density still manages to dance across the page, every sentence, every paragraph leaving the reader adrift in wonder world before venturing on to the next note. Asylum solidifies Nina Shope’s place as one of the strongest, strangest, most provocative writers ever been. Asylum got so much heart it’s a wonder the book don’t explode in your hand instead of waiting till it has buried itself soul deep, sanctifying everything it touches with that lingering sense of imaginative wonder that only literature of a certain stature and significance can provide. This work is not an asylum, this work is a sanctuary.” —Arthur Flowers, author of Another Good Loving Blues and The Hoodoo Book of Flowers

“Relentlessly researched, Asylum is a burning poem of a novel. Its existence is payback for paternalism and the narcissistic dark side of early Western medicine.” —Stacey Levine, author of The Girl with Brown Fur

“ASYLUM is a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of a novel, its narratives of agency, inquiry, and desire shifting brilliantly before our eyes. With each precise and fearless sentence, Nina Shope draws us deeper into the mysteries of her characters’ bodies, hearts, and minds—and what we find there we will not soon forget.” —Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, author of Likes and Madeleine Is Sleeping

“Asylum is historical fiction at its most intimate as we peer deeply into the interior of Augustine, a patient being treated for hysteria by nineteenth-century charismatic neurologist Charcot. The hospital is theatre, and the theatre involves both doctor and patient in a dangerous interplay of seduction and power. We feel the claustrophobia of obsession within each finely wrought sentence, and as we long for Augustine’s escape, we are pressed at each turn to interrogate the very nature of escape and the possibilities of freedom experienced within the self.”

--Jessie van Eerden, author of Call It Horses

"Bold, dynamic, gorgeously written, Nina Shope’s Asylum is a fascinating exploration of the torqued relationship between the famous nineteenth-century French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and his most well-known patient, Louise Augustine Gleizes; a wonderful catawampus-ing of the love story; and a richly researched investigation into power, desire, and narrative possibility."

—Lance Olsen, author of Skin Elegies

"Asylum is a gorgeously imagined glimpse into the relationship of Charcot to his famous patient, Augustine, via haunting episodes where eroticism collides with scientific inquiry. I was captivated by this lyrical and intelligent examination of the ways we create the body via sculpture, photography, medicine, story, and gesture (both involuntary and rehearsed). A delicious novel that flays its characters to their dark, deeply human hearts."

--Tina May Hall, author of The Snow Collectors