The Quelling
The Quelling
by Barbara Barrow
“Complex and strange, The Quelling is a marvel of a debut.”
—Jen Julian, author of Earthly Delights and Other Apocalypses,
winner of Press 53's 2018 Short Fiction Prize
Addie and Dorian have always been together: the two sisters have spent most of their lives in a locked ward after being diagnosed with a rare psychiatric condition and accused of murder as children. Now on the cusp of adulthood, Addie plans to start a new family to replace the one she lost, while Dorian struggles with her own violent tendencies to help raise her sister's child. But Dr. Lark, the supervisor of their ward, sees these patients as the key to his revolutionary Cure. As his "treatments" become increasingly bizarre, Addie and Dorian are increasingly unsafe, and a ward nurse may be their only lifeline.
A Foreword INDIES Gold Award Winner for Adult Literary Fiction
Praise for The Quelling
“Instantly achieves page-turner status . . . insightful, vivid renderings of circumstances and events contribute to a collective narrative greater than the sum of its parts.”
—Foreword Reviews
“The Quelling—ferocious, tender, astonishing—lays bare our animalistic drives toward violence and love, and our human impulse to cure and to control. Barbara Barrow's story of the sharp sisters Addie and Dorian, and the strange and transgressive Dr. Lark, brims with terrifying insights and the eerie intimacy of dreams.”
—Anca L. Szilágyi, author of Daughters of the Air
