Hunchback is far from being an easy read. Although quite short, between novelette and novel, there are heavy thoughts & deep insight that can make you stop many times to think about what you just read.
I have to acclaim the writing, as well as the translation. Being myself a professional, I know how difficult it can be to convey a message both culturally and linguistically appropriate. Kudos to Polly Barton for succeeding!
As for the author, I think there needs to be an accolade for courage somewhere. She really is a pioneer, and her work, eyes-opening. I wish she continues to write.
(On my GR: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/75625793-jules)

This may only be around 100 pages long but it's one of the most confronting 100 pages I've read. The narrator, Shaka, suffers from a debilitating muscle condition that has made her housebound with a severely twisted spine crushing her lungs and limiting her movement. She's not looking for pity but is angry about the way she and other disabled people have been written out of Japan's national narrative.

But this book is more complicated than that because Shaka also details her embodied experience, putting her body on display for the reader so that I was caught between a horrible sense of my own curiosity and a shameful feeling of voyeurism that is acutely unsettling.

To ramp up the discomfort, Shaka is immensely wealthy - she owns the care complex in which she lives and can afford the technology she needs for her online writing life and to enable her second degree. She gives away her profits in a philanthropical move - but is herself suddenly confronted by one of the care workers who is badly paid and who wants some of her cash. The whole issue of different forms of privilege and disadvantage thus explodes into the narrative and creates a transaction dynamic where it's really not clear who is abusing or exploiting whom.

I appreciated the whole way Ichikawa opens up this subject matter, not least the issue of sex and desire. She also makes disability individualised in a productive way, while making us think more widely about how it may react intersectionally with other forms of privilege or its lack.

This isn't a comfortable book - and nor should it have to be. But it is uncomfortable in the best, widening, thought-provoking way.

With all due respect, what was this? Let me tell you, reading this on public transport is a choice that I regret making (thank goodness it was a place where English is not the first language, otherwise I would have been getting some serious side-eye).

There's a chronic lack of literature featuring disabled characters, which is ridiculous considering that anyone can become disabled at any time. There's so many things that can go wrong with the human body, and for many people reading this review, that will not be news to you.

The main character, just like our author, suffers from congenital myopathy. This is a condition that I have never seen representation of, and so I'm thankful that this representation exists for those who need it. However, that's where my praise for this book ends. I don't really understand why it was written. It was far too crass for me, and while the writing isn't horrible, it doesn't do anything miraculous. I didn't root for or particularly care about anyone mentioned in the book for good or bad reasons, and aside from discussions about ableism which we very much need to be having more of, this book felt ultimately pointless and unremarkable. I'm surprised this book in this state managed to win a prize, however I would probably read something else by this author.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an advanced copy of this book. I wish it had gone to plan as far as my enjoyment of it is concerned.

Hunchback is a an exceptionally intelligent , deceptively simple story of a very wealthy disabled woman living an isolated life in a care facility. She writes erotica under various pseudonyms online and tweets about her twisted and unsettling inner desires.

When circumstances force her into a compromising position, a new male carer reveals he knows much more about her online identity than she is comfortable with, and this sets off a twisted series of events that will have you wincing with embarrassment, scratching your head in confusion, before the conclusion leaves your jaw on the floor.

I genuinely loved this book, my only wish is that it were a little longer, and covered the blogging and erotica themes in a little mire depth. A poignant and memorable tale, I read this through again as soon as i finished it. I highly recommend to lovers of literary fiction that explores society and teases the border of weird fiction. Similar vibes to Sayaka Murata but with less surrealism.

I must admit reading this was far from the expectation I had when I applied for the ARC, however this is not a bad thing as this book offers a glimpse into a mind that you rarely see and that challenges expectations with aplomb. Not for the faint of heart, Hunchback is a story that leaves you with a collection of emotions that I am still figuring out.

I found this book difficultto stop reading as we delve more into Shakha's experience as a disabled person who wants to experience the world just like everyone else does, however her physical and respiratory problems have stopped her from being able to. How the character discusses the privileges of those who abled gives you a fresh sense of perspective - the idea that being able to hold a book or be able to sit at a desk to write without having to worry about anything is a privilege makes you consider how much more empathy we need.

In moments this book will leave you uncomfortable, but discomfort I feel in this book is well warranted, this is a book served to the reader it feels to remind them they have the privilege to read it at all. The desires of people do not stop because they are disabled and the body has a nasty habit of sometimes working against us are major themes of this book and it's done so well - you are never
going to forget how you felt reading this book.

Hunchback in moments reminds me of books such as Convenience Store Woman, because there is almost too human quality to this book that leaves you with a feeling of 'what did I just read' and though I wouldn't recommend to everyone, I think it's a book that says so much in so little space that it absolutely deserves to be read.

(thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc for honest review).

This was certainly an unusual novella and very thought provoking. I can't say I enjoyed it but was really intrigued, and it's great to have a woman with disabilities at the centre of the story and not shying away from her daily needs and routine along with her life online.
The ending was certainly quite ambiguous, and
I will be thinking about the book generally, and her complaints about readers of physical books for some time to come.
I feel the translator is also deserving of praise as the prose was easy to read and understand
Thank you to netgalley and Penguin Books for an advance copy of this book.

Thank you to Penguin for the E-Arc of this novella via netgalley!

For readers who want:

Wacky grossness like The vegetarian by Han Kang or Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Open and confusing endings like Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi


What a weird little story! And what an ending, very mindfuck-y! This novel is quite short, sitting at 112 pages, it was an easy read to lose myself in and I found myself both intrigued and a bit grossed out! We follow Shaka, who has severe disabilities (severe spine curvature, congenital muscle disorder etc) and a fantasy: she wants to get pregnant and abort it (as all women do according to her). The novella packs quite a punch, lamenting on several abelist aspects of the publishing industry and book readers as a whole.

This book is one that delivers on its blurb and the scandalised reviews, it was what I wanted out of "idol burning" but never got. A short story that jams you full of conflicting thoughts and feelings.

I found the narrative at the end of the story very perplexing too, to get onto some minor spoilers I think this ending will be very polarising and leave you into one of two camps (think Colleen hoover verity letter VS manuscript debate (which is the only example I can think of despite my loathing of that novel)) and I'll be very interested to read reviews now that I've finished it and theorise!

Overall though, I really reccomend this book. I'd have honestly loved it to be longer and will definitely be picking up a copy to loan out to friends purely to freak them out!

I have thought longer about how to rate this book than the time it took to read it. Ichikawa's writing was excellent and I liked that she didn't shy away from breaking taboos; on the other hand, the structure and plot just didn't do it for me.

For me, the graphic descriptions of both Shaka's writing and of dealing with her illness juxtaposed really well. Ichikawa sends a strong message to the reader about disabled people being sexual beings just as much as the rest of us. There was a also a sort of double message in it that something is wrong in a society where we are more comfortable and accustomed to reading graphic sex scenes than we are reading about disability. Shaka's constant mentioning of her condition helped to cement how severely affected her life was. Her wish to experience having an abortion made perfect sense to me in that it may have given Shaka a feeling of power over not only her life but also that of another in some way.

I'm undecided how I felt about the wealth privilege Shaka had. Whilst this undoubtedly gave her a certain level of agency, it made the structure of the care facility somewhat confusing. The difficulty in finding reliable care staff was another reminder of the difficulties faced by even the most wealthy in the disabled community and provided an explanation as to why Shaka didn't have her own 1-to-1 carers which she presumably could afford. It also threw into doubt whether or not we are supposed to view Shaka as a good or a bad character. On balance I would say she was good but her desperation to experience something "normal" perhaps made her act in bad ways.

The ending threw me completely and felt unfinished. It was muddy and the dialogue didn't feel right. The final paragraphs seemed to imply that Tanaka murdered Shaka and then his younger sister used her name for sex work and on top of that tells her clients what her brother did? That was too far fetched for me. It could also have been a continuation of Shaka's writing, which perhaps makes more sense.

I would have liked this to be a longer novella, I feel there's a lot more to explore in not only Shaka's character development and it would be nice to have a litte more insight into the other characters.

Hunchback is a deeply thought-provoking novella that I found both unsettling and captivating. The central character, Shaka, is a complex figure—a wealthy and generous middle-aged woman, with a rare form of disability who navigates life in isolation. Set during the pandemic, the book explores her inner world, full of contradictions, as she juggles her more 'acceptable' student identity with secret online personas where she writes pretty explicitly about adult entertainment and sexuality.

Ichikawa delves into difficult subjects, including different types of power dynamics and how it isn't always obvious where the power in a relationship lays. I appreciated the unapologetic approach to these themes. The book doesn’t shy away from difficult questions, and the writing style kept me engaged throughout.

It’s not a light read, but it’s one that stays with you and makes you reconsider assumptions about power, agency, and the complexities of human desire.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

This is one that I’m not really not sure how I felt about it.
It was a good read (in parts) and a really important humanising story. It was a tad graphic for my taste. But on the whole it was an interesting and multi-faceted novel.

Hunchback is a blunt book that follows Shaka, a character with a congenital muscle disorder that forces her to remain in a care home on a ventilator. This story follows the world she has created for herself online where she writes pornography and posts on her twitter that garners no interactions. While I really appreciate the rage and frustration that Ichikawa fuels Shaka with, especially at the book community for the history of ableism in publishing, I didn't resonate with the writing style. It was playing for a type of dark humour that doesn't work for me, unfortunately, and so I found myself appreciating Ichikawa's perspective and choices, and not enjoying the story so much.

This was really thought provoking and made you think of how different life can be for someone with a disability. Beautifully written, with hints of darkness. It is something that will stay on my mind for weeks/ months to come.

This book was extremely authentic and vulnerable but also unwaveringly brave and funny. Though it isn’t very long and the plot isn’t conventional, this book presents the reader with a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of Shaka and her relationship to/ separation from wider society.

I read this in one sitting as I didn’t know what was going to happen next and found the writing style very easy to read. This book delivers so much more then it suggests and though the plot may not be for everyone, the message is extremely important and powerful.

Hunchback is a lot of things — authentic, oddly funny, and above all so, very real. Unflinchingly daring to delve into female sexuality and even more so, the sexuality of a disabled woman when society has deemed it to be inappropriate. It explores the dehumanisation, defeminisation, desexualisation that disabled people experience and stares the reader right in the eyes to challenge the ableism that is almost reflex. At points, Shaka thinks about being pregnant and getting an abortion just because other women can do it too - an extreme example but one that shows her feelings of removed from wider society and wanting to feel connected as a human

It's a short story, not exactly with a clear narrative, or solid ending, but instead felt like a snapshot or a long essay with a confusing writing style that personally at times felt rushed or unfinished, risking the characters feeling caricatures. Moving between a brilliantly brash, outspoken narration from Shaka to erotica that almost felt like it had been ripped from the search history of an 18 year old boy, it was highly jarring and alienating in a both uncomfortable and brilliant way.

And don't get me wrong - you are meant to be uncomfortable reading this; but for the right reasons. Like trying to figure out the morality of the power dynamics between Shaka and her carer. Is there abuse happening? Is there really consent? Does the man who is supposed to be caring for her, or the wealthy woman propositioning him holding the power?

An oddly evocative and thoughtful short story — one you may not like exactly, but you'll definitely remember.

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton 📚

Hunchback is a semi-autobiographical novella that offers a provocative exploration of disability, autonomy, sexuality, and power.

The story centres on Shaka Izawa, a woman in her forties with congenital myotubular myopathy, living in a care facility inherited from her parents. Confined to her apartment, where medical equipment keeps her alive, Shaka leads an online life filled with sharp observation and intellectual engagement. Under various personas, she writes erotic fiction, reviews adult venues she’ll never visit, and critiques society’s treatment of disabled people. A key part of the story involves an unsettling relationship with one of her carers, raising questions about power and desire.

Ichikawa challenges conventional portrayals of disability, refusing to present Shaka as tragic or heroic. Instead, Shaka is messy, angry, sarcastic, and profoundly human. Her reflections on Japan’s ableism, book culture’s “exclusionary machismo,” and privilege create a narrative that is intellectually rich and emotionally raw. Ichikawa’s biting yet playful prose mirrors these themes, blending traditional storytelling with Shaka’s own fiction and journalism, blurring the lines between reality and constructed identity.

The novel’s explicit content may be jarring for some, but it aims to expose aspects of disabled lives often sanitised or erased.

Hunchback won the 2023 Akutagawa Prize, and the English translation, beautifully executed by Polly Barton, brings Ichikawa’s sharp voice to life. Though not always an easy read, it is undeniably necessary. Hunchback is a fiercely original book that lingers long after reading, demands engagement, challenges preconceptions, and refuses to be ignored.

Saou Ichikawa’s Hunchback takes on a bold and controversial subject, centering on Shaka Isawa, a disabled woman who explores her sexuality and desires through online erotic fiction. Shaka longs for experiences that her condition makes difficult—most notably, pregnancy—though she ultimately settles for something else: an abortion.

The story critiques how society desexualizes and marginalizes disabled individuals, particularly in Japan, where the disabled community is often rendered invisible. Ichikawa, who shares Shaka’s condition, offers vivid descriptions of the physical realities of her disabilitywhich adds authenticity but at times overshadows character development and narrative cohesion.

Despite the weight of its themes, it feels underdeveloped. The book feels more like a long-form essay than a novella. The abrupt ending and lack of broader exploration into Shaka’s life beyond her sexuality make it feel incomplete. While it presents an important critique of ableism—particularly in how disabled people are stripped of agency, desire, and visibility—the execution leaves much to be desired. The premise is thought-provoking, but the book ultimately lacks the depth and nuance needed to fully engage with its themes. I had high hopes and unfortunately they're left unmet.

Happy to hand sell this title and to be able to talk about this novella focussing on the life of a disabled main character, however, this book was not for me. I found the graphic descriptions and the bizarre abuse of power (which way round?) unsettling and sometimes disturbing. I think it's quite an, urm, niche book, I found myself having to walk away from reading for a few minutes. Having said that - one of a kind, and like nothing else I've read and also great to see a disabled person represented as a strong confident woman who knows what she wants.

The contrast to the erotica the main character is writing is stark and to begin with I thought I had downloaded the wrong book to read.

The ending of the book completely baffled me and I frankly have little idea what happened and have had to look at other reviews to try and work it out.

I read this little book in one go (bar the walk away breaks) so something clearly appealed, but not for me I'm afraid!

Particularly shocking in many respects, this meta-novel is read in one go and then maybe even reread, trying to figure out where we got into the Möbius strip. If you figure it out, let me know.

Particolarmente scioccante da molti punti di vista, questo metaromanzo si legge tutto d'un fiato e poi magari si rilegge pure, per cercare di capire dove siamo entrati nel nastro di Möbius. Se lo capite fatemelo sapere.

I finished Hunchback in one sitting partly due to the novella length and partly out of curiosity to see what would happen next.

I was initially drawn to this book because it differs from the type of narratives we usually see around disability, exploring the main character Shaka's internal world, her day-to-day, and the life she lives online. This book is for readers of literary fiction who like complex main characters, and books that make them slightly uncomfortable.

The observations regarding accessibility particularly resonated with me. As a librarian people often ask me if I think that physical books will disappear and be replaced by eBooks, and they make grand statements about how it just doesn't get better than a physical book. Usually they expect me to agree with them, so I am constantly gently (and not so gently) reminding people that as a librarian I advocate for accessibility of information. This means I support books being made available in as many forms as possible - including audiobooks, eBooks, Large Print books etc. Because of Shaka's muscle disorder and curvature of the spine reading physical books is dangerous due to the weight. At one point Shaka references a disability advocate speaking on TV:

"On air, she had spoken eloquently about the difficulties she had with physical books, which she couldn't read unless she had a carer there to turn the pages for her...all those able-bodied people didn't know how good they had it. They could make erudite-sounding pronouncements about how they just liked the smell of books, or the feel of the paper, or the sense of tension that came from the thickness of the remaining pages reducing beneath their fingers, and others would listen unquestioningly to what they were saying."

I wish this book had been a novel. While it was engaging there were many angles and characters touched on that I would have liked to have seen fleshed out and fully explored. While the middle part of the book was engaging, I found the beginning and the ending quite jarring, especially as I didn't see the ending coming. I like the interpretation that the ending is a piece of the protagonist's fiction. This theory makes sense to me as that is how the novella starts, and also the piece is in keeping with the style of Shaka's other writing.

Saou Ichikawa is the first physically disabled author to win the Akutagawa Prize - one of Japan's top literary awards. Hunchback is her debut and I would be interested to read more from her in the future.

Thanks to Penguin for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An incredibly impressive debut—I found it so refreshing to read a book about this experience of serious physical disability, written by someone who understands the experience first-hand. But the book is also structurally sly and unnerving, to the degree that I wasn't initially sure what to think when I reached the end—in a good way.

It's hard to know what else to say about this, since it's so short yet also so packed with meaning; I feel I would need an entire essay to really dig into my thoughts (which would include spoilers) but otherwise—I'm just really impressed by this and grateful it's made it here in translation. I highly recommend this and it's so short you can read it in a single sitting.