Since her broth­er took his life after WWI, Ruth Emeral­dine has had one goal: to help those suf­fer­ing from men­tal ill­ness. Then she falls in love with charis­mat­ic Robert Apter a bril­liant doc­tor cham­pi­oning a rad­i­cal new treat­ment, the lobot­o­my. Ruth believes in it as a mir­a­cle treat­ment and in Robert as its genius pio­neer. But as her hus­band spi­rals into delud­ed mega­lo­ma­nia, Ruth can’t ignore her grow­ing sus­pi­cions. Robert is oper­at­ing on patients reck­less­ly, often with hor­rif­ic results. And a vul­ner­a­ble young moth­er, Mar­garet Bax­ter, is poised to be his next victim.

Mar­garet can bare­ly get out of bed, let alone care for her infant. When Dr. Apter diag­noses her with the baby blues and pro­pos­es a lobot­o­my, she believes the pro­ce­dure is her only hope. Only Ruth can save her and scores of oth­ers from the har­row­ing con­se­quences of Robert’s ambitions.

Inspired by a shock­ing chap­ter in med­ical his­to­ry, The Lobot­o­mist’s Wife is a gal­va­niz­ing nov­el of a woman fight­ing against the most griev­ous odds, of ego, and of the best inten­tions gone hor­ri­bly awry.