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    Shy: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Shy: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Shy: A Novel
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    Shy: A Novel

    By Max Porter

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    One of The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2023

    In a dilapidated mansion, in the middle of the night, a young man is considering what could be his final decision in this world.

    The rucksack is shockingly heavy.
    The floorboards complain.
    He checks again, the spliff is diagonal-snug in the empty Embassy box.
    The daytime check is a half-dream away.
    The room is molten soft. Tempting.
    Jumpy.
    The rucksack is shockingly heavy.
    It’s 3:13 a.m.


    Shy. A troubled teen, a "dangerous young man," a reject from the social structures that no longer wish to nurture him. Shy knows that society has not failed him, he has failed it—parents, schooling, friends and sometime girlfriends. Judged and found wanting, he now lives at Last Chance, a boarding school for boys like him. 

    Set over a few hours of a single evening, Shy exists between the stillness and beauty of a nocturne and the exhilarating shout of simultaneous teenage joy and anguish. With leaps of linguistic brilliance and wild energy, this is an utterly immersive novel in its authenticity and heart-breaking honesty. As with all Porter’s writing, the darkness is indivisible from a core of humour and humanity. It is his greatest feat of empathy yet.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateMay 2, 2023
    ISBN9780771004506
    Unavailable
    Shy: A Novel
    Author

    Max Porter

    Max Porter is the author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, which won the International Dylan Thomas Prize and The Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award and was short-listed for The Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize.

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    Reviews for Shy

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Shy is a troubled youth. He is either way too high or way too low. And often the transitions are accompanied by violence or other unsocial behaviour. So perhaps it is no surprise that Shy is now living at a boarding school for youths like him, rather too obviously named Last Chance. But despite the attentions of the staff, Shy’s behaviour remains volatile. And frankly it’s all just getting too much for him. He thinks he sees a way out, but it’s not necessarily a good choice.Max Porter is a brave writer who takes on challenging subjects and equally challenging protagonists. Whether he fully succeeds or not, you can’t help but be impressed. Although it’s almost impossible to warm up to Shy, Porter somehow draws us into Shy’s predicament.Gently recommended, but do steel yourself first.