In 1830 a young novice called Catherine Labouré was granted a vision of the Virgin Mary. Nearly 200 years later, Sister Anne is also waiting for a sign. Which is why she accepts a mission to go to a tiny community on an island just off the coast of Brittany. Her only companion there is a sceptical, chain-smoking older nun who just wants to be left in peace.

On the island she meets Hugo, the son of a devout family who prefers to look for the meaning of life amid the stars; Madenn, a grandmother whose daughter was killed in a crash and who finds meaning in routine; Isaac, Madenn’s grandson, an otherworldly teenager who doesn’t fit in but who befriends Hugo, and Julia, a sickly child. If anyone needs a miracle, it is her.

But it is not Sister Anne who receives a vision. Instead it is Isaac who is found on a promontary, transfixed, unable to utter more than the words ‘I see’. The event soon becomes headline news and the world descends on the small island, opening old wounds and unleashing a chain of events none of them could have foreseen.

‘An essential story of women resisting the unjust exertion of male power’ SUNDAY TIMES

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The Salpêtrière asylum, 1885. All of Paris is in thrall to Doctor Charcot and his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad or hysterical, outcasts from society. But the truth is much more complicated – for these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives or strong-willed daughters. Once a year a grand ball is held at the hospital. For the Parisian elite, the Mad Women’s Ball is the highlight of the social season; for the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.

Geneviève is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister, she has shunned religion and placed her faith in Doctor Charcot and his new science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugénie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family. Because Eugénie has a secret, and she needs Geneviève’s help. Their fates will collide on the night of the Mad Women’s Ball…

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‘In this darkly delightful Gothic treasure, Mas explores grief, trauma and sisterhood behind the walls of Paris’ infamous Salpetriere hospital’ PAULA HAWKINS, author of A SLOW FIRE BURNING

‘A beautifully written debut…I have absolutely no doubt it will be one of my favourite novels of 2021.’ AJ PEARCE, author of DEAR MRS BIRD

‘Essential reading’ COSMOPOLITAN

‘A deftly woven tale of hope and pain, judgement and redemption, cruelty and kindness. Utterly captivating and profoundly affecting.’ Sunday Times bestseller, MIRANDA DICKENSON

‘Enter the dance of this little masterpiece and let yourself be dazzled. Assured of hitting the bestseller lists’ THE PARISIAN

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AN AMAZON PRIME ORIGINAL FILM STARRING MÉLANIE LAURENT

‘In this darkly delightful Gothic treasure, Mas explores grief, trauma and sisterhood behind the walls of Paris’ infamous Salpetriere hospital’ PAULA HAWKINS, author of A SLOW FIRE BURNING

‘A beautifully written debut…I have absolutely no doubt it will be one of my favourite novels of 2021.’ AJ PEARCE, author of DEAR MRS BIRD

The Salpêtrière asylum, 1885. All of Paris is in thrall to Doctor Charcot and his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad or hysterical, outcasts from society. But the truth is much more complicated – for these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives or strong-willed daughters. Once a year a grand ball is held at the hospital. For the Parisian elite, the Mad Women’s Ball is the highlight of the social season; for the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.

Geneviève is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister, she has shunned religion and placed her faith in Doctor Charcot and his new science. But everything begins to change when she meets Eugénie, the 19-year-old daughter of a bourgeois family. Because Eugénie has a secret, and she needs Geneviève’s help. Their fates will collide on the night of the Mad Women’s Ball…

‘Essential reading’ COSMOPOLITAN

‘A deftly woven tale of hope and pain, judgement and redemption, cruelty and kindness. Utterly captivating and profoundly affecting.’ Sunday Times bestseller, MIRANDA DICKENSON

‘Enter the dance of this little masterpiece and let yourself be dazzled. Assured of hitting the bestseller lists’ THE PARISIAN

‘A lovely, moving first novel, a cri de coeur against the condition of women in this world’ MARIE FRANCE

‘The Mad Women’s Ball is as lush on the inside as it is on the outside! It’s richly immersive, taking us right into the heart of nineteenth-century Paris.’ SHELLEY HARRIS, author of the Sunday Times bestseller JUBILEE