Room

‘I wait for his boots to drop.

They fall on Floor, one thump, two thumps, that’s how I know he’s going to get into Bed with Ma now and make it squeak.

I count the squeaks because I’m excellent at numbers.

I have to count, I can’t lose count, if I lose count I don’t know what. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10...’ Kidnapped as a teenage girl, Ma has been locked inside a purpose built room in her captor’s garden for seven years.

Her five-year-old son, Jack, has no concept of the world outside and happily exists inside Room with the help of Ma’s games and his vivid imagination where objects like Rug, Lamp and TV are his only friends.

But for Ma the time has come to escape and face their biggest challenge to date: the world outside Room.