When Randle Patrick McMurphy is institutionalized in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, he rallies the other patients of the mental ward around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. A fun-loving, boisterous fighter, McMurphy promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Nurse Ratched, backed by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest burst onto the scene like a rebel yell that would not be contained, becoming an instant international bestseller and one of the defining works of the 1960s. Hailed upon its publication in 1962 as “a glittering parable of good and evil” (The New York Times Book Review) and “a roar of protest against middlebrow society’s rules and the invisible rulers who enforce them” (Time), Kesey’s intense, propulsive and ultimately harrowing novel has sold millions of copies and remains as bracing and insightful today as when it was first released.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was adapted into a stage play in 1963, and then into a film in 1975, which won five Academy Awards.