Shy : a novel
(Book)

"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. The night is huge and it hurts. In Shy, Max Porter....asks: How does mischievous wonder and anarchic energy curdle into something more disturbing and violent?" --publisher's website

First published:,London : Faber & Faber Limited, 2023.