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Shy cover art

Shy

By: Max Porter
Narrated by: Joe Gaminara
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Publisher's Summary

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

This is the story of a few strange hours in the life of a troubled teenage boy.

You mustn’t do that to yourself Shy. You mustn’t hurt yourself like that.

He is wandering into the night listening to the voices in his head: his teachers, his parents, the people he has hurt and the people who are trying to love him.

Got your special meds, nutcase?

He is escaping Last Chance, a home for ‘very disturbed young men’, and walking into the haunted space between his night terrors, his past and the heavy question of his future.

©2023 Max Porter (P)2023 Faber Audio

Critic Reviews

'Shy is the strangest, most beguiling and affecting of all his books.' Ian Rankin

'Max Porter has a way of writing unlike anyone else. I loved Shy. I finished it elated and tearful, joyful and terrified, changed by the journey. It moved me and surprised me and that is what I look for in my favourite artists.' P.J. Harvey

‘Max Porter is one of my favorite writers in the world. Why? Because he‘s always asking the most important questions and then finding ways – through innovative structures and that inimitable voice –of answering those questions soulfully, with his full attention, in ways that make the world seem stranger and more dear (or more dear because stranger). He gives his readers, in other words, bursts of new vision.’ George Saunders

What listeners say about Shy

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Bleak but beautiful

I am a Porter fan and this one did not disappoint. Does require a fair bit of concentration as it’s dense and sort of abstract but it has stayed with me

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Well written

Was a very well written book and enjoyed reading it. Personally found it a little hard to understand the time line but that’s just me. Good ending

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Excellent!

Max Porter has written yet another lyrical, compassionate story. Loved it! Highly recommended! Read all his books!

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