England in 1837 was on the cusp of huge changes. In his lyrical first novel, The Quickening Maze (Penguin, $15), short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, Adam Foulds examines the shifts from traditional faith, handcrafting, and village life to an as-yet-uncertain industrial future. He focuses on the closed society of High Beach mental asylum, which counts among its inmates John Clare, the once-renowned “peasant poet” who is now out of fashion, and the young Alfred Tennyson, a promising writer about to embark on In Memoriam, the masterpiece that Queen Victoria would keep at her bedside. Foulds takes readers inside the poets’ minds as well as into the consciousness of other patients, the distracted doctor hoping to make a fortune with a new mechanical woodcarver, and the doctor’s daughter, smitten with Tennyson. Weaving fictional with historical characters and events, Foulds has created a rich tapestry of voices and visions.