Saou Ichikawa

Unapologetic, unashamed and unflinching. Hunchback grips the reader with its raw, fizzing, subversive energy, even as it shakes off shackles — both physical and mental. A book that moved and thrilled us.

Hunchback is one of the boldest and most unusual books to emerge from a mainstream publisher in years. It's a brilliant, riveting book that lets us tune into the voices we have long kept suppressed.

A must-read debut. Funny and frank, this book lingers in the mind long after you turn the final page

Gloriously transgressive. The novel asks us which is more important: access to culture or to sexual expression? And, like all good fiction, it doesn’t provide a straight answer.'

Written with guts and wit, Hunchback is a tender and defiant story which forces readers to think far beyond ableist concepts of who gets to desire and be desired

Thrillingly transgressive... a difficult, intriguingly recalcitrant, form-busting book

Hailed as one of the most important Japanese novels of the 21st century, Hunchback is a subversive and morally complex story that dismantles assumptions about disability. A difficult but revelatory read, expect Hunchback to be one of the most talked about books of the year

A remarkable and original study of yearning. Funny, lively and very touching.

A lithe, thrilling book — Saou’s writing is as sharp as a knife

Uproariously funny, unflinching, and merciless. It's not very often you encounter this provocative and yet so refreshingly honest of a read.

Mariana Enriquez, author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed

Sayaka Murata, author of Convenience Store Woman

A forceful and original novel which will leave no reader unchanged

Brazen in its intensity, radical in its vitality

Propulsive, sexy and distilled, Hunchback is the novel on disability and desire I’ve been waiting for. Shifting between the minutiae of physical limits and broader structures of ableism, Saou Ichikawa's writing is as narratively gripping as it is explosively insightful. This is an essential book.

Hunchback is an eruption. It dissolves conventional pieties around care. In Saou Ichikawa's world, constraints - both physical and social - can only be overcome by an immense and necessary flourishing of desire.

Defiant, subversive, sexy, dark, and full of originality. Hunchback breaks like a shard of lightning through a complacent, oppressive world.

Seán Hewitt, author of All Down Darkness Wide

I can honestly say I’ve never read anything like it. It’s by turns sharp and tender, both shocking and mordantly funny. It’s an incredibly generous dispatch from an experience most people simply can’t imagine (and choose to avert their eyes from). I loved it so much I could go on and on

Emmett de Monterey, author of Go the Way Your Blood Beats

Frank and unflinching, this transgressive novel about disability, privilege and desire demands your attention from the very first page. It’s a true firecracker and I was absolutely gripped by Ichikawa's bold, fresh voice.

Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller

Provocative and incisive, furious and blackly comic, it is a lens that focuses not only on difference, but on likeness. Here is a writer and this is her subject. Both are seriously worthy of our attention

LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2025 
 
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… 
 
Written by the first disabled author to win Japan’s most prestigious literary award and acclaimed instantly as one of the most important Japanese novels of the twenty-first century, Hunchback is an extraordinary, thrilling glimpse into the desire and darkness of a woman placed at humanity’s edge. 
 
‘Uproariously funny, unflinching, and merciless’ Mariana Enriquez, author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed 
 
‘Filled with unforgettable insight’ Sayaka Murata, author of Convenience Store Woman

Saou Ichikawa

Praise for Hunchback

Unapologetic, unashamed and unflinching. Hunchback grips the reader with its raw, fizzing, subversive energy, even as it shakes off shackles — both physical and mental. A book that moved and thrilled us. < ...

Hunchback is one of the boldest and most unusual books to emerge from a mainstream publisher in years. It's a brilliant, riveting book that lets us tune into the voices we have long kept suppressed.

A must-read debut. Funny and frank, this book lingers in the mind long after you turn the final page

Unapologetic, unashamed and unflinching. Hunchback grips the reader with its raw, fizzing, subversive energy, even as it shakes off shackles — both physical and mental. A book that moved and thrilled us. < ...

Hunchback is one of the boldest and most unusual books to emerge from a mainstream publisher in years. It's a brilliant, riveting book that lets us tune into the voices we have long kept suppressed.

A must-read debut. Funny and frank, this book lingers in the mind long after you turn the final page

Unapologetic, unashamed and unflinching. Hunchback grips the reader with its raw, fizzing, subversive energy, even as it shakes off shackles — both physical and mental. A book that moved and thrilled us. < ...

Hunchback is one of the boldest and most unusual books to emerge from a mainstream publisher in years. It's a brilliant, riveting book that lets us tune into the voices we have long kept suppressed.

A must-read debut. Funny and frank, this book lingers in the mind long after you turn the final page

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