Umbrella

Shortlisted For The Man Booker Prize 2012 For Half A Century Audrey Death Has Been In A State Of Semi-consciousness. Severed From The World Of The Living After Falling Victim To Encephalitis Lethargica, She Has Languished In Friern Barnet Mental Hospital. Then, In 1971, Maverick Psychiatrist Dr Zack Busner Arrives. Audrey's Experiences Of A Bygone Edwardian London: Her Socialist Lover, Her Involvement With The Suffragists, And Her Work In A Munitions Factory During The First World War, Alternate With Dr Busner's Attempts To Bring Her Back To Life With A New And Powerful Drug. His Investigations Lead To Revelations That Are Both Shocking And Tragic, And Which Will Return To Haunt Him Decades Later. A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella. James Joyce, Ulysses It is 1971, and Zachary Busner is a maverick psychiatrist who has just begun working at a mental hospital in suburban north London. As he tours the hospitals wards, Busner notes that some of the patients are exhibiting a very peculiar type of physical tic: rapid, precise movements that they repeat over and over. These patients do not react to outside stimuli and are trapped inside an internal world. The patient that most draws Busners interest is a certain Audrey Dearth, an elderly woman born in the slums of West London in 1890, who is completely withdrawn and catatonically tics with her hands, turning handles and spinning wheels in the air. Busners investigations into the condition of Audrey and the other patients alternate with sections told from Audreys point of view, a stream of memories of a bustling bygone Edwardian London where horse-drawn carts roamed the streets. In internal monologue, Audrey recounts her childhood, her work as a clerk in an umbrella shop, her time as a factory munitionette during World War I, and the very different fates of her two brothers. Busners attempts to break through to Audrey and the other patients lead to unexpected results, and, in Audreys case, discoveries about her familys role in her illness that are shocking and tragic. A Brother Is As Easily Forgotten As An Umbrella. James Joyce, Ulysses Recently Having Abandoned His Rd Laing-influenced Experiment In Running A Therapeutic Community - The So-called Concept House In Willesden - Maverick Psychiatrist Zack Busner Arrives At Friern Hospital, A Vast Victorian Mental Asylum In North London, Under A Professional And A Marital Cloud. He Has Every Intention Of Avoiding Controversy, But Then He Encounters Audrey Dearth, A Working-class Girl From Fulham Born In 1890 Who Has Been Immured In Friern For Decades. A Socialist, A Feminist And A Munitions Worker At The Woolwich Arsenal, Audrey Fell Victim To The Encephalitis Lethargica Sleeping Sickness Epidemic At The End Of The First World War And, Like One Of The Subjects In Oliver Sacks' Awakenings, Has Been In A Coma Ever Since. Realising That Audrey Is Just One Of A Number Of Post-encephalitics Scattered Throughout The Asylum, Busner Becomes Involved In An Attempt To Bring Them Back To Life - With Wholly Unforeseen Consequences. En kvinde, født i 1890, er indlagt på et sindssygehospital i London lidende af den sovesyge, som ramte mange mennesker i kølvandet på den 1. verdenskrig. Hun befinder sig i konstant coma, men da psykiateren Zack Busner i 1971 bliver ansat på hospitalet, fatter han interesse for hendes tilfælde. Hans forsøg på at bringe hende tilbage til livet får imidlertid uforudsete konsekvenser SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2012 The major new novel by the author of Great Apes, How the Dead Live and The Book of Dave