Asylum

By: Patrick McGrath

Narrated by: Sir Ian McKellen

From our most celebrated writer of the psychological thriller comes this nerve-wracking yet eerily beautiful work of erotic obsession and madness. In the summer of 1959, Stella Raphael joins her psychiatrist husband, Max, at his new posting: a maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane. Beautiful and headstrong, Stella soon falls under the spell of Edgar Stark, a brilliant and magnetic sculptor who has been confined to the hospital for murdering his wife in a psychotic rage.

But Stella's knowledge of Edgar's crime is no hindrance to the volcanic attraction that ensues - a passion that will consume Stella's sanity and destroy her and the lives of those around her.

©1999 Patrick McGrath (P)2008 BBC Audio

Critic reviews

"The book is hypnotizing, with its own strange but darkly convincing pace and style; and the way in which nature and climate are woven into the fabric of the bizarre couple's strange love is masterly." ( Publishers Weekly)

Descent into Madness

The beautiful Stella falls passionately in love with Edgar while he is a patient in a mental hospital. The plot that ensues is both frightening and fascinating. The intimacy with which McGrath portrays Stella, her psychological environment, and the surroundings in which she travails is nothing short of brilliant. With each page the reader is drawn into Stella's world with amazing accuracy. Her lover, Edgar Stark, is aptly named because the deeper Stella walks into his world, the more stark her world becomes. Stella's husband, Max, is not the noble man he believes himself to be, yet the reader keeps hoping he will become that. Max is as psychologically damaged as Edgar, but Max's actions are seen as more civilized since they are so well covered. But Max can be perceived as far more dangerous and it could be argued that it is Max who ultimately destroys Stella. Peter, the pseudo-hero is so full of hubris that he realizes too late Stella's true condition and becomes the last victim of Stella's tragic affair. From beginning to end we watch Stella walk the knife edge of sanity until, in the end, she chooses to fall. The book stays with you long after the last word is uttered. It is read well. I highly recommend the novel.

Astonishingly good

The multiple layers of obsession and madness in Asylum are masterfully crafted right through its final sentence. Ian McKellen's narration is flawless, perfectly nuanced. I have well over two hundred books in my library, and I'd put Asylum high in the top five.

Shrink Patient Melodrama

Zero sympathy for Stella, ditto Peter the psychiatrist who violates every ethical boundary. I kept listening, hoping that the beautiful “slut”would get her comeuppance.

smart psychological thriller

I could not put this down. The psychological insights form the core of the narrative and flesh out the characters beautifully.

starts off good but drags on and just fizzles

a decent story, but it did tend to meander... without any clear direction. I struggled after chapter 7 - stayed with it just to see how it would end. I had a hard time staying focused on the characters because my attention waned in many places in the book.
Ending was very stupid, and about the worst choice the writer made. Any other ending would have been far more exciting to listen to than what the author ultimately chose.

Narration was well done. Soothing voice.

Amazing, subtle, crafty...

I was drawn in completely within minutes by this literary treat, and even as I was mesmerized by the lovely narration and the way the story subtly pulls your thoughts this way and that; yet I was completely slapped off my seat by some of the shifts, and not until the final part of the book did I get the biggest slaps of them all, coming one after another and leaving me blown away altogether.
This is literary fiction on another level. If you love a British narrator, an intelligent story, a subtle thriller...don’t hesitate to get this!

This book crossed all the lines!

Such a complex story! What is madness? when does love become toxic? Asylum is an intriguing ride through a love story set in the background of an asylum

Left my feeling conflicted

Superb narration, of course. Incredibly well written novel about a cast of characters who evoke no sympathy, no relatability , and no familiarity. It’s not that the work lacked character development, it is that the characters all lack humanity.

Take away message: life is meaningless

excellent narration.

the narrator was perfect. the story a bit too predictable with stereotypical characters. Still it was entertaining.

The nuts are running the nuthouse!

This book was well done...only 4 stars because it ended so abruptly. I think a lot of people are missing the point here...the doctors "treating" the patients can be as obsessed and dangerous in their thinking as their patients, given the right circumstances...that's what was so engaging. Peter's faulty treatment of Stella, clouded by his desire for her rather than her successful recovery, made him as dangerous as the other inmates which ultimately resulted in her death. Very interesting premise and subtle which can make it seem at first like a simple case of adultery.