The Patient

By way of Stephen King, The Silent Patient: Parker, a young, overconfident doctor who is brand-new to working at a mental asylum, makes a disastrous calculation when he tries to cure a strange and extremely dangerous patient.

Parker H., a young physician, shares his terrifying experiences working at a depressing mental hospital in New England through a series of blog posts. Parker wishes to share with the world, via this online message board, his efforts to help one confused patient.

The most challenging and extremely dangerous patient at the hospital is revealed to us, just as Parker did on his first day there: a forty-year-old guy who was first brought to the hospital when he was just six years old. The diagnosis for this patient is unknown. His ailments appear to change with time. All those who have tried to help him have ended up dead or insane.

For their own safety, the hospital's management, desperate and afraid, keep him firmly confined and permit little interaction with personnel, believing that releasing him will bring about calamity on the outside world. Astute and conceited, Parker decides to investigate the mystery patient's condition and provide a remedy. However, after meeting the mystery patient for the first time, events go out of hand, forcing Parker to consider options he never would have considered and to reevaluate everything he had assumed to be true.

Jasper DeWitt's stunning debut will captivate readers who enjoyed Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes and Paul Tremblay's The Cabin at the End of the World.