A sanitorium in the Swiss Alps reflects the societal ills of pre-twentieth-century Europe, and a young marine engineer rises from his life of anonymity to become a pivotal character in a story about how a human's environment affects self identity. In this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Mann uses a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, a community devoted exclusively to sickness, as a microcosm for Europe, which in the years before 1914 was already exhibiting...

Toby's life was perfectly normal ...until it was unravelled by something as simple as a blood test. Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House; an out-of-time existence far from the modern world, where he, and the others who live there, are studied by Matron and her team of nurses. Toby spends his days fighting his fear. But then a new arrival in the house shatters the fragile peace, and everything changes. Because everybody dies. It's...

In an era of bootlegged whiskey and muddled race relations, faith and medicine are failing the patients at the Waverly Hills tuberculosis sanatorium. Dr. Wolfgang Pike believes music could play a pivotal role in his patients' care--but his boss's disapproval, rising racial tensions, and past memories tear at him.

In the early years of the twentieth century, restorative waters are a popular health draw for many. Healing Sands Sanitarium, northwest of Hoquiam, Washington, is located on the sandy edge of the Pacific Ocean and is famous for its restorative rest cure, fermented diets, and Dr. Hornsby's electrotherapeutics. No one has ever died at Healing Sands-until now. When Benjamin Bradshaw, a professor at the University of Washington and a specialist in electricity,...

An anthology that consists of three tales based on particular patients of a mental institution. Each tale begins with Dr. Stenson, the primary physician at the Sanitarium, commenting on the recent arrival of a new patient. As Dr. Stenson speaks, the individual's story begins. It explores the different narratives of the insane patients-tales which led to their crazed states of minds.