2025 Int Booker longlist - Hunchback

[Henk]

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton (Viking)

Hunchback, written by Saou Ichikawa and translated by Polly Barton, is an extraordinary and thrilling debut novel about sex, disability and power. Born with a congenital muscle disorder, Shaka Isawa has severe spine curvature and uses an electric wheelchair and ventilator. Within the limits of her care home, her life is lived online: she studies, she tweets indignantly, she posts outrageous stories on an erotica website. One day, a new male carer reveals he has read it all – the sex, the provocation, the dirt. Her response? An indecent proposal…

Find out more about the International Booker 2025-longlisted book: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Thanks again

[Paul]

Nice compare and contrast between this and On the Calculation of Volume.

Narrator of On the Calculation of Volume is a bookdealer who will not buy a book until she has physically been to where it is for sale, and handled it:

I very quickly developed a certain instinct for the books, a feel for the paper, an eye for the quality of the printing, for a well-crafted binding. I don’t know what it is, but it’s almost physical, like an inchworm testing whether a leaf is worth creeping across, or a bird listening to insects moving in the bark of a tree. It might be a detail: the sound when you flick through the pages, the feel of the lettering, the depth of the imprint, the saturation of the colors in an illustration, the precision of the details in a plate, the hues of the edges.

By contrast the narrator of Hunchback:

Being able to see; being able to hold a book; being able to turn its pages; being able to maintain a reading posture; being able to go to a bookshop to buy a book –  I loathed the exclusionary machismo of book culture that demanded that its participants meet these five criteria of able- bodiedness. I loathed, too, the ignorant arrogance of all those self-professed book-lovers so oblivious to their privilege.
[...]
Here was I, feeling my spine being crushed a little more with every book that I read, while all those e- book- hating able- bodied people who went on and on about how they loved the smell of physical books, or the feel of the turning pages beneath their fingers, persisted in their state of happy oblivion.
[...]
The publishing industry is rife with ableist machismo. The world of sports, which all those literary types who play up their physical weakness display so much vitriol for, has in fact done far better at affording a space in its corner for those with disabilities.

Think she's talking to you Tara....

[Ruben]

Yes, Ichikawa certainly knows how to get her message across. I found it very effective.

I am in need of an explanation of the ending though... I understood the final story to be one of the writings of our main character, that would also serve as a kind of insurance/protection against Tanaka in case he comes back...?

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I really liked this on reflection

Uncompromising, uncomfortable but unforgettable.

I was not fully sure of what the ending was aiming at either.

Alwynne’s review of this is well worth checking out.

[Ben]

literally just read this, so my thoughts aren't fully formed.

I fully agree with GR's assessment of uncompromising, uncomfortable and unforgettable.

The ending lost me somewhat. I'll be interested to see what other people understood by it.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I was a little lost too although can see a few possible interpretations.

[Rachel]

I interpreted it as another piece of Shaka’s writing, similar to the opening piece. But then I read another reader who said they read it as real narrative from Tanaka‘s sister. It had been 5 months since I read it so I went back and read the ending again and I’m still not sure I see it as real so I’m curious what others think.

[Roman Clodia]

I read it as Shaka's fiction so that the two pieces bookend the narrative. Interested in other views though.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I have seen one theory it was written as an insurance policy in case she was blackmailed.

[Alwynne]

Roman Clodia wrote: "I read it as Shaka's fiction so that the two pieces bookend the narrative. Interested in other views though."

I read it that way too, but it was so long ago now, it's hard to remember the exact details.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Just picking up on Paul’s post on the contrast with Calculation of Volume it turns out the physical book fetish persists into the very far future.

Under The Eye of The Big Bird

What a beautiful thing a book is, Lama thought. The book the great mother gave to her was bound in leather, with pages that were rich in illustrations and gave off a marvelous smell.
Up until now, Lama had seen words and diagrams only on a screen, and those were wonderful, but nothing compared with the sensation of turning over the pages of a real book.
While Lama was bewitched by the material and texture of her book, Eli was quickly hooked by the content of hers.

[Paul]

Which is interesting for a world that has AI physically manifesting itself - the exclusionary machismo of book culture extends to computers as well.

[Rose]

I know we're probably done talking about this, but I finally got ahold of it and was curious to see what others had thought of the end.

I don't think it's another piece of Shaka's writing, bookending the first piece, because the first piece is in a different font and offset, and this part is the same font as the rest of the book and not separated in any way. That said, I don't know how the author meant it to be interpreted, other than maybe we're all just the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves? I read this immediately after reading Audition which may be having an inordinate impact on my interpretation.

In any event, I disliked the ending the way I disliked the ending of Martyr! and Playground. For me it diminished my overall enjoyment of the book, which was very high up to that point. I really appreciated the representation of Shaka's physicality, the sexual and the disability related. And I also thought the juxtaposition of her privilege (class and wealth) and lack thereof was very well done and thought provoking. (I have a disabled YA myself and do not have the means to leave them as well provided for as Shaka is, so this is something I think about all the time).