The good psychologist - Noam Shpancer

The good psychologist teaches the principles of control and objectivity, strategies by which we evade pain, memory and lies. Meanwhile in the Center for Anxiety Disorders he dispenses wisdom, and coaxes truth from one patient in particular: a vulnerable, frightened nightclub dancer whose life is haunted by secrets.

But as he treats and guides and teaches, the good psychologist becomes increasingly disturbed by his own private torments: unrequited love, an unacknowledged child, growing loneliness and despair. Soon he is adrift as, softly, he leads the reader into the dangerous yet seductive territory of the human heart.

The author is a psychogist who is a professor at Otterbein College in Ohio, and he has a clinical practice at the Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy of Columbus, where he specialises in the treatment of anxiety orders. THE GOOD PSYCHOLOGIST is his first novel, and it was originally written in Hebrew.

** 'This extraordinarily compelling novel combines the intensity of a thriller with the lucidity and depth of a master class.
Shpancer, like all the best writers (and clinicians), doesn't just reveal the complexities of our nature but honors and preserves the mystery at their core.
Page by page, THE GOOD PSYCHOLOGIST is brilliantly suspenseful; long after time is up, you'll continue to hear his voice in your head, elegant, knowing, and surpassingly humane
Robert Cohen, author of INSPIRED SLEEP and AMATEUR BARBARIANS

** 'Noam Shpancer portrays the oft-hidden world of psychotherapy with unparalleled authenticity, compassion, and wit. More important, his literary gifts are profound. Beautiful language, an evocative sense of place, and an acute understanding of the human
Jonathan Kellerman