About this book

In a small provincial town, there is a psychiatric wing called Ward No. 6 where patients live in miserable conditions. They are neglected and sometimes even brutalised. Dr. Andrei Yefimych Ragin is the director of the hospital, and even if he is intelligent, he is also passive in the face of such mistreatment. More interested in philosophy than medicine, he is looking for meaningful conversations with some of his patients, such as a former clerk named Ivan Dmitrich Gromov who is still articulate and thoughtful. Their conversations impact the Doctor to a point that he never could have suspected. A powerful critique of apathy and the abuse of power, this short read peels back the layers of human suffering and institutional cruelty. Step into Ward No. 6, and, like Dr. Yefimych, you won’t come out unchanged.