The Blind

Book excerpt: When the lines of sanity are blurred...With the intensity and rawness of Girl, Interrupted and The Luckiest Girl Alive comes this razor-sharp debut, which reveals how one woman can go so far off the deep end, she might never make it back up.In this unexpected and addictive psychological debut, A.F. Brady takes readers into the mind of a deeply disturbed woman desperately trying to keep her head above water, showing that sometimes what's most terrifying is what exists in your head. With the intensity and rawness of Girl, Interrupted and Luckiest Girl Alive comes this razor–sharp debut, which reveals how one woman can go so far off the deep end, she might never make it back up. Sam James has spent years carefully crafting her reputation as the best psychologist at Typhlos, Manhattan's most challenging psychiatric institution. She boasts the highest success rates with the most disturbed patients, believing if she can't save herself, she'll save someone else. It's this saviour complex that serves her well in helping patients battle their inner demons, though it leads Sam down some dark paths and opens her eyes to her own mental turmoil. When Richard, a mysterious patient no other therapist wants to treat, is admitted to Typhlos, Sam is determined to unlock his secrets and his psyche. What she can't figure out is why does Richard appear to be so completely normal in a hospital filled with madness? And what, really, is he doing at the institution? As Sam gets pulled into Richard's twisted past, she can't help but analyse her own life, and what she discovers terrifies her. And so the mind games begin. But who is the saviour and who is the saved? In this unexpected and addictive psychological debut, A.F. Brady takes readers into the psyche of a deeply disturbed woman desperately trying to keep her head above water, showing that sometimes what's most terrifying is what exists in your mind.