Australian Independent Bookseller

All the best books from your local independent bookseller

The Shut Ins

The Shut Ins

by 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.

Format
PB
Category
Fiction
Publisher
Allen & Unwin
Publish Date
July 2021

Mai and Hikaru went to school together in the city of Nagoya, until Hikaru disappeared when they were eighteen. It is not until ten years later, when Mai runs into Hikaru's mother, Hiromi Sato, that she learns Hikaru has become a hikikomori, a recluse unable to leave his bedroom for years. In secret, Hiromi Sato hires Mai as a 'rental sister', to write letters to Hikaru and encourage him to leave his room. Mai has recently married J, a devoted salaryman with conservative ideas about the kind of wife Mai will be. The renewed contact with her old school friend Hikaru stirs Mai's feelings of invisibility within her marriage. She is frustrated with her life and knows she will never fulfill J's obsession with the perfect wife and mother. What else is there for Mai to do but to disappear herself?

Other titles you should consider ...

Funny Story

Emily Henry

Earth

John Boyne

Mania

Lionel Shriver

My Favourite Mistake

Marian Keyes

  See More...

Not all products are available in all stores.

Popular Sites

Miles

The Miles Franklin Award

Stella Logo - Vertical - Green2
The Stella Prize


Capture

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation 


Search Book Title/Author

This Week's Top 10

  1. The Glass House Anne Buist & Graeme Simsion
  2. Sanctuary Garry Disher
  3. Dog Man 12: The Scarlet Shedder Dav Pilkey
  4. Caledonian Road Andrew O'Hagan
  5. What Happened to Nina? Dervla McTiernan
  6. The Work Bri Lee
  7. Lola in the Mirror Trent Dalton
  8. Dirt Poor Islanders Winnie Dunn
  9. The Familiar Leigh Bardugo
  10. Pheasants Nest Louise Milligan

Source: Nielsen BookScan
Date: 13 April 2024