Room

Jack is five years old and has never been outside. His whole world is Room, a small locked space where he lives with his mother, whom he calls Ma. The man who holds them captive is known to Jack only as Old Nick.

Jack tells the story himself, so everything arrives through a child's eyes and a child's understanding of what Room is. It is a contemporary novel about captivity and about the bond between a mother and her son, written in a narrow first-person voice.

The author drew part of her inspiration from the Josef Fritzl case, in which a father kept his daughter prisoner for 24 years. She was especially struck by the youngest child born during that captivity, who met the world beyond the walls at age five.

The book appeared in 2010 and took the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize that year, along with the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction. A 2015 film followed, directed by Lenny Abrahamson from a script by the author, and Brie Larson won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role.