A cure for suicide - Jesse Ball

A man and a woman have moved into a small house in a small village. The woman is an 'examiner', the man, her 'claimant'. The examiner is both doctor and guide, charged with teaching the claimant a series of simple functions. She makes notes in her journal about his progress: he is showing improvement, yet his dreams are troubling. One day, the examiner brings him to a party, and here he meets Hilda, a charismatic but volatile woman whose surprising assertions throw everything the claimant has learned into question. What is this village? Why is he here? And who is Hilda?