Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest challenged conceptions of madness and treatment; ironically, it sharpened psychiatry’s determination to be taken seriously, to categorise and medicate trauma. But mass-medication is failing us all. Pre-pandemic, deprescribing was taking off. The Octopus Man points to a delicate third way between insanity and polypharmacy. You will be hooked, you will laugh and possibly cry. And you will know by page four that this hilarious and compassionate novel really matters