For fans of The Doll Factory and The Familiars, a gemlike novel set in a Parisian asylum in 1885 about two women - one deemed mad, the other sane - who find their salvation at The Mad Women's Ball
'A darkly sumptuous tale of wicked spectacle, wild injustice and the insuppressible strength of women' EMMA STONEX, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE LAMPLIGHTERS
'Enter the dance of this little masterpiece and let yourself be dazzled. Assured of hitting the bestseller lists' THE PARISIAN
The Salpatri re asylum, 1885. All of Paris is in thrall to Doctor Charcot and his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad or hysterical, outcasts from society. But the truth is much more complicated - for these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives or strong-willed daughters. Once a year a grand ball is held at the hospital. For the Parisian elite, the Mad Women's Ball is the highlight of the social season; for the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.
Genevi ve is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister, she has shunned religion and placed her faith in Doctor Charcot and his new science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugenie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family. Because Eugenie has a secret, and she needs Genevi ve's help. Their fates will collide on the night of the Mad Women's Ball...
'Essential reading' COSMOPOLITAN
'A deftly woven tale of hope and pain, judgement and redemption, cruelty and kindness. Utterly captivating and profoundly affecting.' Sunday Times bestseller, MIRANDA DICKENSON
'A lovely, moving first novel, a cri de coeur against the condition of women in this world' MARIE FRANCE
'The Mad Women's Ball is as lush on the inside as it is on the outside! It's richly immersive, taking us right into the heart of nineteenth-century Paris.' SHELLEY HARRIS, author of the Sunday Times bestseller JUBILEE
