Patient X by David Peace – A fictionalised (or is it?) biography of ​​RyÅ«nosuke Akutagawa, populated with lashings of rehashings of the famed Japanese writer’s own work. It has a thematic emphasis on in/sanity and containment. The friendlier critics suggest it has stylistic echoes of Henry James and Edgar Allen Poe. (Sarah Olive, Bangor)