Catatonia is a penetrating examination of the idea of freedom in the 21st century. It is a spiritual and psychological drama centered around Bella Benfont, a constantly self-analysing young woman caught between her fading loyalty to her mother's Catholicism and the new idea of freedom espoused by the monomaniacal Nicholas Shelley, the self-styled Apex of The Evolution of the Individual. It is a story of tragic intensity propelled by deeply-imagined characters brought to vivid life and an unrelenting pace that leaves readers breathless.