Hospital (novel)

Hospital

First edition

Author| Toby Litt
Country| United Kingdom
Language| English
Publisher| Hamish Hamilton[1]

Publication date

| 2007
Media type| Print
Pages| 511
ISBN| 0-241-14280-6
OCLC| 232364991

Hospital, subtitled A Dream-Vision, is a 2007 novel by Toby Litt, describing surreal events in a large hospital around the framing device of an unnamed boy's attempts to find the exit. It is Litt's eighth novel,[2] and was originally published by Hamish Hamilton.

## Plot[edit]

Litt initially adopts a realistic tone, portraying several conventional scenarios associated with medical drama, including a nurse's romantic interest in a doctor, the arrival of a coma patient from another hospital, a young boy's stomach-ache (which he believes to be the result of an apple tree growing from a seed he had earlier swallowed), and the medical troubles of other patients. As the novel progresses, situations become increasingly surreal, as the ritual slaughter of a baby by Satanist doctors causes an impenetrable fog of implicitly supernatural origin to beshroud the hospital, impeding contact with the outside world. As the young boy continues to search for an exit, various bizarre events occur: a group of patients begin to worship the comatose man who had been transferred into the hospital earlier that evening; meat in characters' stomachs regenerates into the animals it had been taken from, ripping their torsos open; and the young boy's fear that an apple tree is growing inside of him is realised.[3]

The book is notable for its large cast of characters, who are progressively introduced throughout in order to convey a sense of confusion and bewilderment. Litt estimates that the novel contains ‘about 130 characters’ overall.[4] The meaning of the narrative is subject to multiple interpretations. Some, such as Martin, have argued that the subtitle implies that the text should be understood as a dream of the coma patient,[5] whereas others, such as Poole, believe it is an allegorical representation of birth.[1]

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b Poole, S (7 April 2007). "Dreams of healing". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
2. ^ Mukherjee, N (1 April 2007). "Hospital by Toby Litt". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
3. ^ Litt, T (2007). Hospital.
4. ^ Litt, Toby (2011). "Toby Litt" (web). Interviewed by Andrews, T. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
5. ^ Martin, T (1 April 2007). "A cult classic - and then I woke up". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 December 2013.

## External links[edit]

* Hospital on OCLC WorldCat
* An interview with the author in 3:AM Magazine

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