This is a darkly comical novel about madness, psychiatry and coincidence, shooting off in so many directions it is sometimes hard to keep track – but it is well worth the effort.

At the start of the book, we encounter Sebastian in the midst of a psychotic episode. He has the life history to justify any form of escape!

His therapist, Martin is working with him relatively successfully but it turns out that his adopted daughter, Olivia is actually Sebastian’s long lost twin. That makes continuing to work with Sebastian difficult!

There’s a range of other characters. Lucy who is being treated for a brain tumour, her wild partner Hunter who finds solace in chatting to an Italian monk named Guido, and Francis who is Olivia’s partner.

The book is a sequel to Double Blind and also a cheerful resolution of part of that book’s story. While funny about, and critical of, many aspects of psychiatry and psychoanalysis it describes the possibility of escaping from a terrible past to a place where you can survive as a human being and, in the end, everybody is enriched by the events.

It’s a superb novel, beautifully written and insightful. It’s well worth reading!