Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £14.99, pp269
At a time when society is concerned about issues of drug safety, Jasper Gibsonâs bravura new novel is timely and revelatory. It concerns Tom, a once-promising law student who has become lost in the maze of the mental health system and the increasingly vivid hallucinations â or visions â that are plaguing his return to reality. If, of course, he ever wants to go back to the status quo. Gibson skilfully combines black comedy with a compassionate and searching examination of what madness is and whether ânormalâ life is itself a state of mind.
The problem with pills: The Octopus Man, by Jasper Gibson, reviewed spectator.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spectator.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
From fictional debuts to untold histories, Martin Chilton rounds up the forthcoming titles to keep you reading throughout the year.
Julian Barnes wrote: Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory. Although he was joking about Gustave Flaubert s carnal desires, Barnes could easily have been describing the sweet sense of excitement felt by book lovers contemplating new pages on the horizon. The new year will bring novels from Kazuo Ishiguro, Sebastian Faulks, Lisa Taddeo, Stephen King and Jonathan Franzen; memoirs from Brian Cox and David Sedaris; and non-fiction releases from George Saunders, Dr Rachel Clarke and Matt Haig. There is even going to be a children s book about positive thinking from footballer and food-provision campaigner Marcus Rashford.