Short Synopsis
The Asylum of Dr. Caligari is a timely tale that is by turns funny and erotic, tender and bayonet-sharp—but ultimately emerges as a love letter to that mysterious, indispensable thing called art.

Full Synopsis
If you think today's profiteers are diabolical, blink again.

It is the summer of 1914. As the world teeters on the brink of the Great War, a callow American painter, Francis Wyndham, arrives at a renowned European insane asylum, where he begins offering art therapy under the auspices of Alessandro Caligari—sinister psychiatrist, maniacal artist, alleged sorcerer. And determined to turn the impending cataclysm to his financial advantage, Dr. Caligari will—for a price—allow governments to parade their troops past his masterpiece: a painting so mesmerizing it can incite entire regiments to rush headlong into battle.

The Asylum of Dr. Caligari is a timely tale that is by turns funny and erotic, tender and bayonet-sharp—but ultimately emerges as a love letter to that mysterious, indispensable thing called art.

“Entrancing prose enhances the unusual plot of Morrow’s successful melding of history and fantasy.” ---Publishers Weekly

“Satirical, thought-provoking, and stimulating.” ---New York Journal of Books

“This is an erudite, fun book that can be enjoyed on many levels; it succeeds as a satire of geopolitics and warmongering elites, as a comic fantasy, and as a pastiche of the 1920 film that appears on so many fans’ ‘best of’ lists.” ---Foreword

“The Asylum of Dr. Caligari succeeds in being at once a brilliant rendering of an antique spooky passion play and a timeless lesson about megalomaniacs, art, science and love.” ---Locus

“This is a satire for the ages, a skillful blending of the history of World War One, and the fantastical realm of alchemy and magic . . . The wry, tongue-in-cheek amusement of Morrow’s writing reminds me of reading Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal.” ---The San Francisco Review of Books