Name: The Shut Ins
ISBN: 9781760879747

Katherine Brabon

From the winner of the Australian/Vogel's Literary Award, this tour-de-force explores loneliness and desire, the peril and beauty of solitude - and our need for connection.

The Shut Ins

Trigger warnings: (view spoiler)[suicide, death of a child, toxic gender roles, sexism & misogyny, panic attack, physical injury (snake bite) (hide spoiler)]

This was such a fascinating book with an incredibly calming and introspective narrative style. Set in Nagoya, Mai reconnects with a childhood friend by chance. But this friend, Hikaru, has become a hikikomori - a recluse unable to leave his own bedroom for a number of years. This phenomenon, and the overall sense of soul-searching that arises from the strict expectations in Japanese society, sparks an interesting story that follows Mai, Sadako, Hiromi Sato, and Hikaru himself. Sometimes this journey is a search for achiragawa - sometimes translated as 'over there' or 'the other side' - and other times it a complex explorational of transactional, and sometimes unavoidable, relationships.

This story is both incredibly broad and encompassing, but with a feeling of incredible intimacy. If you are looking for an extremely introspective style of story that lives outside of a Western setting and narrative, this is absolutely a book to check out.


  Note: Review copy received from Allen & Unwin Publishers. This does not impact opinions within this review.


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Happy reading! ❤

The Shut Ins

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