"The Madwomen of Paris" by Jennifer Cody Epstein is a haunting historical novel made all the more devastating by its basis in true events. At the infamous Salpêtrière asylum in Paris, women are frequently diagnosed with "hysteria" and subjected to horrifying treatment, including hypnosis by the asylum's fame-hungry director, Jean-Martin Charcot. When a young woman named Josephine arrives at the institute, bruised and suffering amnesia, she soon becomes one of Charcot's "favorites" for his hypnosis demonstrations. But the more she gains fame, the more her own memories start to return, and Laure, a ward attendant, must figure out if she is truly mad or if she has a dark secret in her past.
Release date: July 11
