Books like Umbrella by Will Self

Set in 1971, psychiatrist Zachary Busner begins work at a suburban mental hospital in north London. He observes patients exhibiting rapid, precise physical tics that seem immune to external stimuli, trapping them in intrusive internal worlds. Busner’s investigations focus on Audrey Dearth, an elderly woman born in 1890 in West London’s slums. Audrey, withdrawn and catatonically tics with her hands, recalls a life shaped by an umbrella shop clerk job, factory work during World War I, and the divergent destinies of her two brothers. Through alternating perspectives—Busner’s clinical observations and Audrey’s stream‑of‑consciousness memories of Edwardian London—Busner seeks to unlock her and the other patients’ conditions, leading to unexpected breakthroughs and revelations about Audrey’s family history that expose shocking and tragic truths.

First publish date: 2012