The Shut Ins

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. 'A compelling story about isolation, duty, desire, fear and escape. As each character in The Shut-Ins feels increasingly trapped by societal pressure, they explore the possibility of retreating to some indefinable, unknowable place. The Shut Ins will appeal to fans of thoughtful literary fiction with a touch of otherworldliness, such as Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata.' - Bookseller & Publisher 'Not only is The Shut Ins a compelling story about hikikomori, those who seek absolute isolation from society, and those who orbit them in their reclusion, it is also a profound exploration of loneliness, solitude, and that peculiar, ineffable yearning for inner or unconscious worlds; the chimeric 'other side'. Katherine Brabon is a precise and contemplative writer, her prose capable of intense, almost-heady evocation. I will read everything she writes.' - Hannah Kent, bestselling author of Burial Rites and The Good People 'Brabon's intellectual and emotional knowledge, and her plainspoken yet spellbinding prose come together in a mesmerising work of art.' - Mireille Juchau, bestselling author of The World Without Us 'Brabon has Murakami's verve and craftsmanship. Her love of Japan shines through: myths, metaphors, its social life, and the vividness of its human faces make this a particularly rewarding piece of fiction.' - Sydney Morning Herald 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? 'I was drawn in utterly by The Shut Ins. It illuminated the world around me in a strange and beautiful light, and it continues to unsettle my thoughts in the best possible way. At once bold and subtle, The Shut Ins is a haunting and transportive reading experience.' Emily Bitto, winner of the Stella Prize for The Strays 'Katherine Brabon's The Shut Ins is quietly mesmerising. Brabon has created an exquisite portrait of loneliness and aloneness through the stories of four interconnected people living in modern day Japan. Her prose is original and vivid, I found myself entranced by this novel from its first sentence to its last.' - Anna Snoekstra, author of Only Daughter

Winner, Trillium Book Award In Téa Mutonji’s disarming debut story collection, a woman contemplates her Congolese traditions during a family wedding, a teenage girl looks for happiness inside a pack of cigarettes, a mother reconnects with her daughter through their shared interest in fish, and a young woman decides on shaving her head in the waiting room of an abortion clinic. These punchy, sharply observed stories blur the lines between longing and choosing, exploring the narrator’s experience as an involuntary one. Tinged with pathos and humor, they interrogate the moments in which femininity, womanness, and identity are not only questioned but also imposed. Shut Up You’re Pretty is the first book to be published under VS. Books, a series of books curated and edited by writer-musician Vivek Shraya featuring work by new and emerging Indigenous or Black writers, or writers of color. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

A respected journalist describes the abuse he suffered at the hands of a close family relative, the effect this had on his formative years and how he overcame the anger and self-doubt it left behind.

I know you're watching me. Confined to a studio apartment, Tricia Celano watches the outside world through a flying drone. But when her high-tech toy records a vicious murder, she's determined to track down the killer--a killer who knows she's being watched. BookShots LIGHTNING-FAST STORIES BY JAMES PATTERSON Novels you can devour in a few hours Impossible to stop reading All original content from James Patterson

The poems in Mass for Shut-Ins are galloping and all-at-once pensive. There's always risk with a touch of ego and humanity. The emotional range of a single poem can go from hilarity to remorse to bravado. These poems speak to being human and alive and work with both vivid imagery and philosophical ruminations.

Winner of the Australian/Vogel's Literary Award 2016 Winner of the Australian/Vogel's Literary Award 2016. How can hope exist when the past is so easily forgotten? Pasha Ivanov is a child of the Freeze, born in Moscow during Brezhnev's repressive rule over the Soviet Union. As a small child, Pasha sat at the kitchen table night after night as his parents and their friends gathered to preserve the memory of terrifying Stalinist violence, and to expose the continued harassment of dissidents. When Gorbachev promises glasnost, openness, Pasha, an eager twenty-four year old, longs to create art and to carry on the work of those who came before him. He writes; falls in love. Yet that hope, too, fragments and by 1999 Pasha lives a solitary life in St Petersburg. Until a phone call in the middle of the night acts as a summons both to Moscow and to memory. Through recollections and observation, Pasha walks through the landscapes of history, from concrete tower suburbs, to a summerhouse during Russia's white night summers, to haunting former prison camps in the Arctic north. Pasha's search to find meaning leads him to assemble a fractured story of Russia's traumatic past. 'This is a poignant and beautifully written novel.' Jenny Barry 'The characters are deep and rich ... keeps you reading just through the sheer quality of it all.' Rohan Wilson

Rock Climbs of Johnson Shut-Ins State Park is the dedicated guidebook to one of Missouri's most beautiful and historic climbing areas. This book contains 67 documented top rope and traditional routes, reaching heights of almost 60 feet. Johnson Shut-Ins is an excellent area for both first-timers, with its easy access and beginner routes, and experienced leaders, with many hard and thin traditional routes. This book features color photos, a glossary of terms for new climbers, and a brief geological and climber history of Johnson Shut-Ins.

Shut Up and Listen! is a true leadership roadmap to the summit of career success and satisfaction, featuring concise principles for entrepreneurs and business leaders at any level. Tilman Fertitta, also known as the Billion Dollar Buyer, started his hospitality empire thirty years ago with just one restaurant. Over the years, he’s stayed true to the principles that helped him build the largest single-shareholder company in America, with over $4 billion in revenue, including hundreds of restaurants (Landry’s Seafood, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Morton’s Steakhouse, Mastro’s, Rainforest Café, and over forty more restaurant concepts) and five Golden Nugget Casinos. He’s also sole owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets. This book shares the key insights that made it all possible. In Shut Up and Listen!, Fertitta shares straight-talk “Tilmanisms” around six key action items that any entrepreneur can adopt today: Be the Bull No Spare Customers Change, Change, Change Know Your Numbers Follow the 95/5 Rule Take No Out of Your Vocabulary For aspiring entrepreneurs or people in business, this guide will help you take your company to the next level. When you put this book down, you’ll know what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong to operate your business, and if you’re just getting started, it will help set you up for success. A groundbreaking, no-holds-barred book, Shut Up and Listen! offers practical, hard-earned wisdom from one of the most successful business owners in the world.