“An eloquent, unblinking cautionary tale of hidden puppeteers playing power games… the story draws on the CIA’s notorious MKUltra project, which forms the novel’s all too real backdrop. Sanderson’s yarn stands as a righteous howl of outrage against the nefariousness of 1960s realpolitik and the collateral damage left in its wake...”
—Kirkus Reviews
DESTROYING MAX
COMING LATE OCTOBER
Montreal, 1960. Max Marchand’s life is seemingly perfect. He has a beautiful wife, Erin, and together with their four teenaged children, they live in a large house in Westmount—Montreal’s most desirable neighbourhood. Max is successful in his career as a real estate developer, and things couldn’t be going better.
However, the threat of a world nuclear holocaust looms large over the country including the citizens of Montreal, sixty miles from Plattsburg, the site of a U.S. missile installation. Not only that, but Max is dealing with problems of his own. No matter how much he drinks, he can’t get rid of the voice inside his head telling him that his life is meaningless. When things start to escalate and Max’s precarious mental state begins to bleed into both his professional and family life, he decides it's time for him to seek medical help.
But as Max spends more and more time under psychiatric care, Erin begins to worry. Every time Max comes home from the Simpson Memorial Institute, he seems less and less like himself, and Erin starts to suspect that Dr. Smiley isn’t being completely honest with her. Little does Erin know: The truth about the care Max is receiving has deeper, more sinister roots related to the CIA and, on an even larger scale, the Cold War.
Destroying Max is a thrilling historical tale full of family drama and political intrigue as well as moments of connection and hope. Step back into the 1960s and join the Marchands as they navigate a turbulent time in Montreal’s history.
"I was inspired to write Destroying Max by my own experiences growing up in Montreal and specifically the time my father spent as a patient in the Allan Memorial Institute." —Robert Sanderson
Characters
DESTROYING MAX
The characters in the novel are as distinct as the story of the Simpson Psychiatric Hospital and Research Institute:
Dr. Montagu - an American psychiatrist and a former president of the American Psychiatric Association who uses innovative methods of treatment including shock therapy, deep sleep messaging, and LSD, in part funded by the CIA in the hope of finding a new method to brainwash;
Dr. Smiley - his assistant, a British-Canadian psychiatrist who dreams of one day living in a mansion;
Colonel Shephard - a CIA operative who will stop at nothing to end the spread of communism including the use of torture and murder;
Dr. Anna Schroeder - a dermatologist and a survivor of the Holocaust, who understands people through the Zodiac as much as she does through her faith and common sense.
REVIEWS
What readers are saying
“An eloquent, unblinking cautionary tale of hidden puppeteers playing power games… the story draws on the CIA’s notorious MKUltra project, which forms the novel’s all too real backdrop. Sanderson’s yarn stands as a righteous howl of outrage against the nefariousness of 1960s realpolitik and the collateral damage left in its wake; of the countless Maxes treated like so many chess pieces, callously cast aside once their usefulness had ended. The novel sounds a warning that feels all too urgent in light of current events.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Destroying Max is a compelling novel in which a family wrestles with the disintegration of their patriarch’s mind and personality.”
—Foreword Clarion Reviews