The Madhouse - Jason Elliot

'We could not, in that place, just lead peaceful and uncomplicated lives, ignoring the fact of our longing. To ignore it, to pretend, to divert ourselves with a thousand trivialities - this would be worse than death itself.'

Unfolding before the reader like a richly-woven oriental tapestry, The Madhouse is a unique, luminous tale of spiritual adventure, studded with gems of psychological insight and timeless wisdom.

An anonymous manuscript tells the story of a man - we never know his name - made captive in a mysterious house. Its inhabitants are strangely familiar, its limits unknown. Driven by a longing to escape and to find meaning in his surroundings, the protagonist's journey moves compellingly towards an uncertain but irresistible goal: freedom. But the challenge is greater than at first supposed, and he must first suffer the trials, forged in the crucible of self-discovery, of separation, failure and betrayal - as well as fathom the paradoxes of time, love and death.

A sustained allegory of inner quest, delivered in a voice at times philosophical and introspective, at others irreverent and provocative, this enigmatic tale fearlessly explores the metaphysical conundrums of life - alongside the perennial challenges of self-discovery, purpose and meaning.

Readers of Borges, Kafka, and Herman Hesse will recognise in The Madhouse a bold and powerful synthesis of intellectual and spiritual enquiry, fused in allegorical language at the highest level of didactic literary fiction.