SEBASTIAN FAULKS Human Traces ****

A fascinating book, even if it doesn't really work as a novel.

It's all about the early days of psychiatry and follows two young men - one English, one French - who become friends and then brothers-in-law and eventually set up a clinic in the Austrian Alps.

I learned a lot about the history of psychiatry and how mental illness was dealt with in the 19th Century but it was sometimes heavy-going and there are plot-twists which are not character-driven but are there to illustrate a point about the understanding of the mind.

There's a wonderful scene towards the end though that brought tears to my eyes, and it's definitely worth the effort.