Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa is a masterful blend of brevity and intensity. This short narrative was utterly gripping, delivering unexpected twists that caught me off guard. The fast-paced storytelling kept me hooked, and I was left genuinely shocked as I reached the end. A quick yet impactful read that lingers in your mind. Highly recommend.

A powerful novella criticising ableist attitudes and showing an honest experience of a middle-aged disabled woman in a care facility, as she writes erotic fiction and tweets about her desires. Hunchback is full of dark humour and visceral descriptions, with a fiery main who is tired of the stereotypical expectations people have of those with disabilities.

I loved how this interrogated the hateful and harmful attitudes prevalent in society, with our narrator, Shaka, bringing this ableism into question through her candid and often brutal tweets. It’s a short book, but one that makes a real impact, showing an honest experience of life with a congenital muscle disorder, criticising the expectations of sexual desire, and exploring questions around financial power.

There’s a lot to think about and it’s one I’ll definitely be coming back to again!

Thank you to Penguin and Viking Books for the chance to read this early.

*I was gifted an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

A quick read that gives insight into life as a person with a muscular atrophy disability, and particularly within Japanese society, where disability is swept under the rug (more so than in some Western countries, anyway). It targets themes of sexual and reproductive rights for the disabled, as well as some thought-provoking questions around the privileges of reading and access to literature.

An interesting read, well-translated, and got its messages across really well. I can't say I particularly enjoyed the reading experience, but some aspects will definitely stay with me.

I didn't really understand this or the point of it, maybe it just wasn't for me! I don't understand the ending either, what was real and what was fiction..... ??

This was a book that I enjoyed reading and found it so interesting but needed to google at the end to just double check I understood it 🙈

I really liked that it was something so different and it brought in a lot of different themes - which I guess is often the case with translated fiction! I really liked that it felt like being in her mind! It also presented us with the mind of someone who had a condition that meant she was perceived differently than others may have. I also really liked that it was a shorter book but would have loved some more!

Ichikawa’s novella tells the story of Shaka Isawa. Born with a congenital muscle disorder and using an electric wheelchair and ventilator, she is financially independent (thanks to her parents’ inheritance) and lives in a group home that she owns. She spends her time studying and writing anonymously: articles, provocative tweets, salacious fantasy scenarios. When one of her carers reveals that he has read it all, a chain of events is set in motion which will have unintended consequences.

Ichikawa shirks sentimentality and clichés, bookending her work with graphic fantasy excerpts. Initially rather shocking, they also serve to make important points about autonomy and control, demonstrating Shaka’s ability to narrate her own fictions.

The text also raises important, and perhaps uncomfortable, questions about reading it in the light of Ichikawa’s own disability. She (I believe) has the same muscle disorder as her protagonist and there is therefore a desire to search for autobiography in the text. This desire suggests that we want to it be either one or the other, derivative or fantastical. We somehow cannot give a disabled author the same kind of credit we would an able-bodied author. Much of the novella is concerned with destroying this need we have for things to be only one thing or another, and fostering a more nuanced view of things, concepts, and people that exist outside of pre-ordained categories.

Shaka’s interface with the world is split starkly between the digital and the bodily. Through her writing and online expression the life of the mind is shown to be vibrant and engaged. However, her physical existence is limited by a constant awareness of the restrictions of her own body. This apparent disjunction begets the driving question of the text - how am I to become perceived of as a person?

Intense and unrepentant, yet darkly humorous at times, Hunchback is an important novella for our times.

A confronting novella narrated by a middle aged disabled woman living in a care facility. I’m not sure I liked it… there’s lots of sex (she writes erotic fiction), details about her day to day life (suctioning the mucus from her tracheostomy tube etc) and her thoughts about things she can’t do. There’s also class, the politics of disability and abortion which made it an interesting read.

I thought the message behind this novella was really special but I didn’t click with the writing style at all

The writing in this novella realy surprised me. I'm used to a certain tone and floweryness when it comes to Japanese literature, however this was quite crass and contained refrences to the culture that I couldn't place. The plot itself follows the day to day life of a disabled woman living in a group home. Shaka studies and writes erotic stories on the internet. I liked the representation of how disability doesn't negate the sexual wants of a person. I wish more had been discussed about the dichotomy, but only 112 pages can only contain so much. This book is also quite graphic at times, that was often jarring and unexpected.

A Japanese novella about Shaka, a forty something woman who is living in a group home for disability people who is owned by her family. Shaka has an abnormality in her spine, which causes her to have a spine with a shape of S which crushes a lung and forces her to depend on a ventilator and electric wheelchair However, she didn't feel incredibly helpless despite her condition.

It is actually semi-autobiographical, which explores her life as a disable woman and her sexual desire, and her lengths to achieve her desires are a bit disturbing.

This novella contains quite a lot of adult content

Yeah, be ready for the confusing ending. I don't mind ambiguous ending, but this one just ended very abruptly, and I felt like What???

Settled on 4 stars. Did I enjoy the book? Still not entirely sure. Am I glad I read the book? Yes, definitely. Reading I found the story has an interesting narrator and I suppose protagonist- a quadriplegic woman suffering from a degenerative congenital condition. You are dropped into her adult life which revolves around sexual escapism writing and blogging, and also her home life circumstances. She has plenty of money, but would give this up for a what she sees as a normal female life. I was forced to consider her perspective about quality of life for those with major disabilities. This point is even more interesting since the author is disabled; is this totally fiction or partly auto-biographical? Or is this question unfair since all authors put part of who they are into every book they write, disabled or not. Thank you to Penguin General Uk - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

Such a little book of translated fiction finding a huge message inside. Very thought provoking, this will stay with me for awhile.

Thank you to Yazmeen at @penguinrandomhouse for this incredible #arc @netgalley

I decided to read #hunchback by #saouichikawa, translated by @pollybukuro as I wanted an escape from the various #translatedfiction I have been reading of late. At 112 pages, I thought it will be a light read before I move onto something bigger.

I should have known better #pollybarton is a great barometer when it comes to picking amazing books. She only translates stories that stay with it or impact upon you in big ways. Thank you Polly 😊

I read this in one evening, it flows so easily and you fly through the pages but it's a total contradiction as its really deep and I felt like I had read 200-300 pages given how much is packed into it.

I won't provide the synopsis as you need to have a look for yourselves but below could be some spoilers if you want to go in blind so look away now if so...

#saouichikawa is disabled with a similar condition to the leading character in this book. It truly shows not only in the factual information around the disability and daily life but the suffocation of such a 'disabling' condition, how the mind can build worlds as the physical body is closed off more and more and how someone in this situation and context can desire something that we take for granted.

As an examples, when the character talks about ablebodied people and their love for physical books, the new book smell, there ability to turn each page and so on, it hits hard and really pushes you to reflect and want to apologise.

I want to find fault in this book so I can expand my reviews and maybe develop myself more in terms of literature but I cannot find anything wrong! I am still in shock it's on 112 pages, it doesn't make sense. This book is so so good, I just wish it was longer l, I think maybe that's why it packs such a punch. I hope #saouichikawa is writing more fiction, around the world of disability and not, I will read it all.

Absolutely loved this and I encourage you to read it too, because it's brilliant, because it shows you how life is for someone with a disability, because the writing is really good and because you are lucky you have the chance to enter this world.

Con...

Hunchback is one of the most significant novels of the 21st century, and for good reason. It’s intense, thought-provoking, and beautifully written, pushing the reader to see beyond physical limitations to the fierce human spirit within. This novel is a rare and powerful look into life at society’s margins, capturing both the darkness and the light of a woman determined to live life on her own terms.

Shaka Isawa was born with a congenital muscle disorder, which makes their spine curvature the shape of an S. Living in a care home as she needs a ventilator and constant care, she lives most of her life online through her studies and through her wonderful imagination by creating these erotica stories. She has a lot of money and she is ready to spend it to live her fantasies. .

This is quite a short book, it’s an important story as I dont think there is enough books, stories set in the perspective of living with disabilities and we need more. I would recommend this!

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read a copy in advance in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed this grotesque novel. I have never read anything like it and have to say it is not for the faint hearted, some of the scenes are horrifying. Loved the lens and commentary on the able bodies. Will be reading anything Ichikawa writes (and translates) from now on.

I don’t understand the hype around this book. It’s just over 100 pages, but honestly, they add nothing of substance. It was supposed to be sensual, intriguing, and touch on important social themes, but I felt it was all style over substance. A waste of time.

Hunchback is a short and focused tale about sexual autonomy and disability. I tore through it in one sitting. I wish there had been more about her erotic writing and how that juxtaposed her lived experiences. I liked the visceral details, the physicality of it, and that the protagonist is in their 40s! Strange and enjoyable!

This book is very unique and covers topics which I have not read before. I would have liked the story to be a little bit longer to add a bit more depth to the overall plot, but I still very much enjoyed this!

*3.5

It is not easy to write a good story in only a couple of pages. Hunchback counts just a little over a hundred pages. Is it a good story? I am not all together convinced of that fact.
It was an interesting story, to be sure. Quite bewildering, also quite graphic. I am not specifically interested in talk of sex or sexual acts in literature. The topic figures throughout the novella, but it's not its theme, merely a way of showing how life can be for a severly disabled person.
So what is Hunchback all about? Its protagonist is Shaka Isawa, a woman with a congenital muscle disorder. Shaka lives in a care home, but her actual life is happening online. She writes erotic stories in which she imagines what life would be like without a disability. Shaka is especially focused on sexuality. She longs to experience pregnancy, but as she knows she cannot carry a baby to term, she is set to go for what she can accomplish: get pregnant and then get an abortion.
With its topic Hunchback is quite controversial, though it doesn't come to its full potential. At least not for me. I would have liked to hear a little bit more about Shaka, about other things that she thinks about and how she goes about accomplishing those things. The story as it is now, ends quite abruptly. It does not feel finished and therefore left me, as a reader, hanging a little.