Barry James is detained in an isolated quarantine facility in the Great Karoo, a desert region of South Africa. He has fallen victim to a plague that has swept the country and beyond, destroying his lungs and his life. He doesn’t know how long he has left to live.
When another patient reveals plans to escape the hospital, Barry is determined to join him.
This is a short book and one that draws the reader in. It’s a very internal, existential story, told from the diaries that Barry kept during his incarceration, which are interwoven with his dreams and fragments of memory that may or may not be real.
Barry is an unreliable narrator, but his musings deepen the dreamlike sense of his days in quarantine, drugged and detached from everyday life.
We never see much of the world beyond the facility and despite the probing of his therapist, Barry reveals little about his past. There are hints of something apocalyptic, the disease spreading out into the world, but the focus of the story is tightly fixed on Barry and his immediate surroundings, showing just how narrow his world has become since the disease took hold.
Each bout of illness, each bloody coughing fit is vividly described, anchoring the narrative back to the physical but retaining the tight focus. With his body broken, it’s not hard to see why Barry might seek solace in his imagination and his dreams, and why his mind might not be completely reliable.
The landscape around the quarantine facility is endless and barren, and described in bleak and evocative language, which is fitting for a story with an apocalyptic tone.
This is a story that gives little away but raises a lot of questions, allowing the reader to peer into the dark corners of Barry’s life and imagine what might lurk there.
Find out more about Asylum on Amazon and Goodreads.
If this sounds like something you’d like to read, don’t forget to come back on Thursday, when I’ll be hosting a dystopian book giveaway that includes a copy of Asylum!
N.B. I received a complimentary copy of Asylum from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.