The Lobotomist’s Wife: A Novel

Well-written with intense characters and an even more intense storyline, The Lobotomist’s Wife tells the story of a woman named Ruth Emeraldine who runs a hospital in the 1940s and meets and marries Dr. Robert Apter who would later be known as the brilliant doctor who invented the lobotomy. This method which goes from a hospital procedure to one done in a few minutes in a doctor’s office is invented to improve the health of those suffering from mental illness. After World War II, Ruth’s own brother had committed suicide and after learning about Robert’s new operation, she is all for helping people with post-traumatic stress disorder. However, Ruth starts questioning the accuracy of positive outcomes from the lobotomy and does her own research. Ruth is a strong-willed character who fights for her hospital patients to get the best care.

This book will have its readers turning pages one after another. With real-life references to Rosemary Kennedy’s lobotomy and the Kennedy family and the realistic aura of the 1940s, Samantha Greene Woodruff’s attention to historical detail is much applauded. I would recommend this book to all fans of historical fiction with a medical aspect.