The Sanity Inspectors

How can you tell who's insane when the world has gone mad?

Originally translated into English by Robert Kee in 1957, the new edition of The Sanity Inspectors includes an Introduction by Sinclair McKay and an Afterword by Chris Maloney.

Who can tell exactly where the difference lies between those of us who imagine ourselves sane and those we call insane?"

As Dr Robert Vossmenge tries to practice psychiatry in Germany in the early 1930s, he finds himself at odds with his profession as it increasingly falls under the influence of the Nazi regime and its aim to rid German society of those it considers undesirables. He tries to stay out of trouble by keeping a low profile, but when he strikes up a friendship with a Luthern pastor, he begins to question his assumptions about what constitutes sanity in a world where the people in charge seem to be insane.

Though he quietly wages a one-man campaign against the German war effort while serving as a Luftwaffe doctor, Vossmenge is ultimately forced to chose between survival and standing for his beliefs. The Sanity Inspectors is a gripping account of the challenge of trying to be a good man in an evil system.

"Always amusing and often frightening." —The Boston Globe

"Clear and fast moving, with humor that refuses to be repressed." —The Indianapolis Star