The Octopus Man

This title tells the story of Tom, once an outstanding law student, now living in East Sussex and lost in the machinery of the British mental health system. Opening with a swirling, compulsive diatribe, Tom comes quickly to confirm what we readers suspect: that he is not entirely alone. He hears the voice of Malamock, the Octopus God – part-comforter, part-autarch, part-guide. After Tom is coerced into a drugs trial, his loving sister and the medical profession celebrate the loss of this voice. However, Tom’s own sense of relief soon turns to despair. Once he was Jacob, wrestling with the angel. Now he is just Tom, struggling on benefits. Tom decides to get his voice back. Deeply moving and tragi-comic, ‘The Octopus Man’ takes us into the complex and disturbing world of voice-hearing in a bravura literary performance that asks the fundamental questions about belief, meaning, and love.