'A modern scream of female outrage. A masterpiece' ELIZABETH GILBERT 'Astoundingly original . . . belongs on the shelf with your Margaret Atwood' NEW YORK TIMES Haunting, intense and irresistible, The Illness Lesson is an extraordinary debut about women's minds and bodies, and the time-honoured tradition of doubting both. In 1871, at an elite new school designed to shape the minds of young women, the inscrutable and defiant Eliza Bell has been overwhelmed by an inexplicable illness. Before long, the other girls start to succumb to its peculiar symptoms - rashes, tics, night wanderings and fits.
