Summary

Cutting-edge psychiatrist Zachary Busner is concerned about some of the patients at a 1970s London mental hospital-in particular, Audrey Dearth, who was born in the slums in 1890 and unfolds her life story in alternate passages-but efforts to reach them dont end well. Just long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

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Radical and uncompromising, "Umbrella" is a tour de force from one of England's most acclaimed contemporary writers, and Self's most ambitious novel to date. Moving between Edwardian London and a suburban mental hospital in 1971, "Umbrella" exposes the 20th century's technology as refracted through a long-term mental institution.