First published 1990
Katie Doheny's husband convinces her to enter their fallout shelter for what he claims will be a necessary two-week stay. His jealousy drives this deception, trapping Katie underground while he controls her world above. The concrete walls become her prison and her cocoon. Days pass in artificial light. She counts meals, measures time, questions everything she believed about her marriage and her life. When Katie finally climbs back into daylight, the same sun shines on the same streets, but she sees everything differently. The woman who descends into that shelter bears little resemblance to the one who emerges. Her husband's manipulation backfires completely. The isolation he intended as punishment becomes Katie's liberation.
Genres: fiction, domestic-fiction, abuse, 20th-century, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, isolation, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Hiroshima
Period: 20th-century
296 pages · Hardcover · Harcourt
Content warnings: abuse, domestic-violence, emotional-abuse