HUNCHBACK by Saou Ichikawa

Translated by Polly Barton

How’s this for a statement of intent? Hunchback opens with a graphic threesome in a sex club, supposedly written by an intrepid investigative journalist who is, well, taking one for the team. The story ends and we learn it’s actually a short peice penned by Shaka, a wheelchair-bound, ventilator-dependent young woman with congenital muscular degeneration living in a care home outside Tokyo. You see, that’s Shaka’s schtick. Writing sex stories for internet erotica sites. When she isn’t trolling on Twitter or taking online courses. Or dreaming of a very particular kind of freedom: getting pregnant just so she can have an abortion.

If it sounds confronting, holy colostomy bag, it is. But it’s also immensely powerful and dignified. Much like Shaka, Ichikawa is confined to a wheelchair and relies on a ventilator. Though I won’t just conflate the two, Hunchback is a fierce roar of independence and sexual liberation on behalf of a community whose carnality is routinely denied or erased. Ichikawa even bucks the almost blanket rule that writing about sex is invariably rubbish. No Bad Sex Award for her. Pulsing with erotic energy and humour, Hunchback will have you laughing, cringing and second guessing your shitty ableist assumptions.

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Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (Tr. Polly Barton)
Hogarth, 2025
90 pages