Jennifer Cody Epstein

Jennifer Cody Epstein is the author of the novels The Painter from Shanghai, The Gods of Heavenly Punishment, Wunderland and The Madwomen of Paris.

Epstein has also worked in Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan, where she lived for five years as a student, teacher, and journalist, as well as in Hong Kong and Bangkok.

[citation needed] Epstein’s debut novel, The Painter from Shanghai, is the fictionalized biography of Pan Yuliang who lived from 1895 to 1977.

Her second novel, The Gods of Heavenly Punishment, is a fictional work exploring America's 1945 firebombing of Tokyo from both Japanese and American perspectives, but especially from that of young Yoshi Kobayashi.

Praised as "beautifully crafted" and "a haunting narrative that showcases Epstein at her best" by Publishers Weekly, and "a fascinating look back at a condition with modern-day resonance" by Science Magazine, the book explores the treatment and public presentation of Salpêtrière hysterics, as well as the hypnosis and research performed upon them by the pioneering neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and the medical luminaries--including Sigmund Freud, Josef Babinski and Georges Gilles de la Tourette--who studied under him.