Patient X: The Case-Book of Ryunosuke Akutagawa

In these twelve interconnected tales, David Peace weaves fact and fiction as he takes up the brief but fiercely lived life of the early-twentieth-century Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Unique and offbeat, Patient X delves into Akutagawa’s rich and complicated private life: his fears and battles with mental illness; his complex reaction to the Westernization of Japan; his exacting creative process; and his suicide, weaving these facets into a hauntingly evocative portrait. But Patient X is more than a paean to one remarkable writer: it is also an incandescent exploration of the act and obsession of writing itself, and of the role of the artist in times that darkly mirror our own.