Patient X: The Case-Book of Ryunosuke Akutagawa

In these twelve interconnected tales, David Peace--acclaimed author of the Red Riding Quartet, Occupied City, and Tokyo Year Zero--weaves fact and fiction as he takes up the brief but fiercely lived life of the early-twentieth-century Japanese writer Ryūnosuke 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.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 08/20/2019
ISBN: 9780525564119
Pages: 336
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 0.90d