Jennifer Cody Epstein

A Novel

Madwomen of Paris

EDGAR AWARD FINALIST • “Epstein’s page-turning historical novel—an indictment of the medical establishment’s manipulation of women—remains eerily relevant and timely.”—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Spectacular Two women fall under the influence of a powerful doctor in Paris’s notorious nineteenth-century women’s asylum—a gripping novel inspired by true events, from the bestselling author of Wunderland. After being dragged into the Salpêtrière asylum screaming, covered in blood, and suffering from amnesia, Josephine is diagnosed with what the nineteenth-century Parisian press has dubbed “the epidemic of the age”: hysteria. It’s a disease so uniquely baffling that Jean-Martin Charcot, the Salpêtrière’s acclaimed director, devotes popular lectures to it, using hypnosis to elicit fits and fantastical symptoms in front of rapt audiences. Young, charismatic, and highly susceptible to this entrancement, Josephine quickly becomes a favorite of the powerful doctor and the Parisian public alike. But her true ally at the Salpêtrière is Laure, a lonely ward attendant. As their friendship blossoms into something more, the two women find comfort and even joy together despite their bleak surroundings. Soon, Josephine’s memory returns, and with it images of a gruesome crime she’s convinced she’s committed. Ensnared in Charcot’s hypnotic web, she starts spiraling into seeming insanity, prompting a terrified Laure to plot their escape together. First, though, Laure must solve a grim mystery: Who, really, is the girl she’s grown to love? Is Josephine a madwoman . . . or a murderer? Inspired by true events, expertly researched, and masterfully written, The Madwomen of Paris is a Gothic saga for the ages with themes that remain hauntingly resonant today.

The Madwomen of Paris

Gods of Heavenly Punishment

A young woman's journey through the 1945 firebombing of Tokyo, and the stories of three Americans who shape her fate.

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment: A Novel

roman

Maleren fra Shanghai

Wunderland

Zeii pedepselor cereşti

At the age of fourteen, Pan Yuliang, a young orphan girl in the care of an opium-addicted uncle, finds herself in the third-class cabin of a crowded steamship bound for a strange new town. When Pan and her uncle arrive in the city he sells his innocent young niece to 'The Hall of Eternal Splendour,' where she is destined to live out her life as a prostitute in its smoky backrooms. And yet, three years later, escape appears in the unlikely form of a government inspector who will take Pan as his concubine and introduce her to a glamorous new life in 1920s Shanghai: a life of love and of art. But as Pan begins to realise her talent as a painter she also sees that she may lose something more precious: a life of safety. Based on an extraordinary true story, Epstein's novel is the captivating tale of a singularly daring life - of suffering and redemption, of fame and notoriety, and ultimately of a devastating choice: between art and one great love.

The Painter of Shanghai

USA TODAY BESTSELLER • “Searing . . . a heartbreaking page-turner.”—People “Both heartbreaking and hopeful, this story of a daughter searching for the truth about her mother’s secret past, tangled up in old secrets and terrible lies, kept me up late turning pages.”—Martha Hall Kelly, bestselling author of Lilac Girls NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE Once inseparable, Berlin teenagers Ilse Fischer and Renate Bauer find their friendship ripped apart by their nation’s abrupt swing into fascism. Ilse, a so-called Aryan, throws her lot in with the Nazi Party, while Renate sees her once-secure world dismantled by Adolf Hitler’s race laws and then shattered by a shocking betrayal. Decades later, that same betrayal will upend the life of Ilse’s daughter, Ava, as she discovers long-buried truths about her mother’s past. A harrowing page-turner, Wunderland traces the lives of three women across two generations—and the devastating repercussions of choices made in the dark days of wartime Germany. Praise for Wunderland “Engrossing . . . Epstein reveals the devastating choices these women make.”—Real Simple “Wunderland is both an engrossing family drama and a foray into a dark period of history . . . a wholly original angle to the WWII novel. You’ll read it in one shivered sitting.”—Refinery29 “A vividly written and stark chronicle of Nazism and its legacies.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A wealth of history turns Wunderland into a novel that’s both beautiful and devastating. . . . Epstein taps into the 1930s prewar era, laying out an unsparing narrative that details tragic events and horrifying legacies . . . opening a new door that may lead to redemption and joy for future generations.”—BookPage (starred review) “[A] heartbreaking historical tour de force . . . Man’s inhumanity to man—and the redemptive power of forgiveness—is on stark and effective display in Epstein’s gripping novel, a devastating tale bound for bestseller lists.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

In 1913 an orphan girl boards a steamship bound for Wuhu in South East China. Left in the hands of her soft-hearted but opium-addicted uncle she is delivered to The Hall of Eternal Splendour which, with its painted faces and troubling cries in the night, seems destined to break her spirit. And yet the girl survives and one day hope appears in the unlikely form of a customs inspector, a modest man resistant to the charms of the corrupt world that surrounds him but not to the innocent girl who stands before him. From the crowded rooms of a small-town brothel, heavy with the smoke of opium pipes and the breath of drunken merchants, to the Bohemian hedonism of Paris and the 1930s studios of Shanghai, Jennifer Epstein’s first novel, based on a true story, is an exquisite evocation of a fascinating time and place, with a breathtaking heroine at its heart.

Vztah mezi Avou Fischerovou a její matkou Ilse nikdy nebyl bezproblémový. Ve vzduchu viselo příliš mnoho otázek: Kdo je Avin otec? Co dělala Ilse za války? Proč svou jedinou dceru nechala v posledním válečném roce v německém sirotčinci? Do New Yorku, kde nyní Ava žije, dorazily z Německa Ilsiny ostatky a s nimi složka neodeslaných dopisů adresovaných neznámé ženě: Renate Bauerové, matčině přítelkyni z dětství. Odhalují temnou minulost a Ava se noří do šokujícícho příběhu ženy, kterou nikdy doopravdy neznala...

Říše divů

”Det er helt overvældende at gå ombord i denne lækkerbisken af en roman. Det er mageløst godt skrevet” – Litteratursiden.dk

Una exquisita y exuberante meditación sobre la guerra en Japón. En esta novela épica, evocadora y emocionante, la joven Yoshi Kobayashi, de quince años de edad, se dirige hacia su casa una noche de marzo de 1945 cuando los bombarderos norteamericanos inundan con napalm la ciudad de Tokio, en un ataque que deja cien mil muertos en pocas horas y media ciudad en ruinas y sepultada bajo las cenizas. En los días siguientes, Yoshi verá que su antigua vida se difumina de tal modo que le resulta irreconocible, y se sumirá en un mundo marcado por la destrucción que deberá compartir con aquellos que se consideran enemigos: Cam, un piloto de un bombardero derribado tomado prisionero por el ejército de Japón, Anton, un arquitecto de talento que ayudó a la modernización de Tokio antes de la guerra -aunque ahora está acusado de destruirla- y Billy, un soldado de las fuerzas de ocupación que llega a la ciudad con un oscuro secreto. Directa o indirectamente, cada uno dará forma a la vida de Yoshi, mientras ella busca la seguridad, el amor y la redención. Reseñas: «Esta triunfal novela es un gran retrato humano, y dolorosamente visceral, sobre la guerra en Japón. Epistein empatiza con un mundo atormentado y con los mínimos detalles de la vida de las personas que lo habitan.» Jennifer Egan, ganadora del premio Pulitzer «Nunca he leído nada parecido a esta novela. Dioses de un castigo celestial es de una importancia universal y urgente para entender la historia de nuestro tiempo.» Angela Davis «Con una sensibilidad dramática y pictórica al estilo de El paciente inglés, te adentrarás en un retrato indeleble de la guerra en el Pacífico vista a través de los ojos de seis personajes cuyas historias te perseguirán incluso después de su última pincelada.» Hillary Jordan «Lleno de personajes fascinantes y al filo del suspense. Una meticulosa y magníficamente escrita investigación sobre la pérdida y la esperanza.» Ellis Avery «Brillantemente documentada, esta novela revive uno de los actos más destructivos, inquietantes y dramáticos jamás cometidos en una guerra, haciendo justicia a las ingeniosas y contradictorias conexiones entre víctimas y vencedores, entra la historia pública y la vida privada.» Publishers Weekly «Esta novela épica sobre una joven japonesa durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial pone de relieve el amplio impacto que las decisiones de los demás pueden tener en nosotros.» Kirkus Reviews

Jennifer Cody Epstein

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