Patient X

Review David Peace writes the boldest and most original British fiction of his generation. -- Richard Lloyd Parry ― New York Times One of the most original and intriguing books you'll read this year. ― Mail on Sunday Replicates the curious but damaged psyche of its subject . . . a powerful study of story-telling. ― Times Literary Supplement One of the most memorable stories in the book, the phantasmagoric "Jack the Ripper's Bedroom" . . . reads like something by Edgar Allen Poe set in Edwardian London with a Japanese protagonist, and concludes with a nod and a wink to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. -- Ian Sansom ― Guardian Experimental and poetic, this compelling portrait of one of Japan's most influential writers is expertly captured by the dark magic and literary genius of David Peace. His most elegant novel to date. -- Adelle Stripe, author of Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile As a work of tribute, Patient X is superlative: exacting, precise and filled with the suffocating sense of foreboding generated by the master's own best stories . . . Peace is not simply a masterfully controlled stylist but a magnificently atmospheric one, composing hypnotic collages. ― Financial Times Product Description Ryuosuke Akutagawa was one of Japan's great writers. He lived through Japan's turbulent Taisho period, including the devastating 1923 earthquake, only to take his own life at the age of just thirty-five in 1927. Inpsired by Akutagawa's stories, essays and letters, David Peace has fashioned an extraordinary novel of tales. An intense, passionate, haunting paean to one writer, it also thrillingly explores the act of writing itself, and the role of the artist, both in public and private life, in times which darkly mirror our own. Book Description Extraordinary, standalone novel from the legendary David Peace, about one of Japan's greatest ever writers. From the Back Cover Ryuosuke Akutagawa was one of Japan's great writers. He lived through Japan's turbulent Taisho period, including the devastating 1923 earthquake, only to take his own life at the age of just thirty-five in 1927. Inpsired by Akutagawa's stories, essays and letters, David Peace has fashioned an extraordinary novel of tales. An intense, passionate, haunting paean to one writer, it also thrillingly explores the act of writing itself, and the role of the artist, both in public and private life, in times which darkly mirror our own. About the Author David Peace - named in 2003 as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists - was born and brought up in Yorkshire. He is the author of eleven novels including the Red Riding Quartet, adapted for television by Channel Four in 2009, GB84, which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, The Damned Utd, Red or Dead, which was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize in 2013, and most recently Tokyo Redux. He lives in Tokyo.