<b>An early realist novel by Stanisław Lem, taking place in a Polish psychiatric hospital during World War II.</b><p>Taking place within the confines of a psychiatric hospital, Stanisław Lem''s <i>The Hospital of the Transfiguration</i> tells the story of a young doctor working in a Polish asylum during World War II. At first the asylum seems like a bucolic refuge, but a series of sinister encounters and incidents reveal an underlying brutality. The doctor begins to seek relief in the strange conversation of the poet Sekulowski, who is posing as a patient in a bid for safety from the occupying German forces. Meanwhile, Resistance fighters stockpile weapons in the surrounding woods. </p><p>A very early work by Lem, <i>The Hospital of the Transfiguration</i> is partly autobiographical, drawing on the author''s experiences as a medical student. Written in 1948, it was suppressed by Polish censors and not published until 1955. The censorship of this realist novel is partly what l