The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan (translated by Yuri Machkasov) is the story of a residential house for physically disabled children, the speculative elements that spawn from their imaginations, and their chaotic lives within their home. This chunky story is largely plotless, instead drawing you into the students’ lives through multiple points of view and two distinct timelines to guide you through what it’s like to live in the Gray House.

The first thing that I noticed and admired about this story was the fact that it doesn’t shy away from discussions of disability – how could it? Ninety percent of the characters depicted are disabled and most of them are nicknamed for their disability: the boy with no arms is known as ‘Grasshopper’ and the leader of one of the packs of teenagers is known only as ‘Blind’. Despite this, the characters don’t display a single ounce of shame or derision towards each other for what they are or aren’t able to do, or what diagnosis they have been given. The nicknames are badges of honour and a rite of passage for living in the Gray House. The only people who threaten to burst this blissfully prejudice-free bubble with societal stigma are the adult counsellors who ostensibly care for the children: they are negligent at best and abusive at worst.

The parallels between The Gray House and Lord of the Flies are hard to miss – the children form gangs based on their dorms and follow the natural hierarchies that emerge. They smoke, keep wild birds as pets, draw on the walls, and generally do whatever else they choose to with little to no input from the adult counsellors. They are rarely forced to engage with any lessons or activities, and it becomes clear very early on that this is just a dumping ground for kids whose parents don’t know what to do with them. It’s a miserable elephant hiding in an eclectic and tangential story with organic bursts of childish comedy. The main plot really only becomes clear at the fifty percent mark and this is when things start travelling in to tragic territory.

This book is a masterclass in writing crisply defined characters who are quirky and flawed and so, so believable. There is a horde of rowdy, grubby, and unwaveringly loyal children caught between the seven hundred and thirty-two pages of this novel just waiting to jump out and take up residence in your brain. They’ll bring you goblin drawings, juicers, sticky crutches, black eyes, cigarettes and you while you might struggle to remember all of their nicknames, you’ll learn to love all of them.

This is a story that celebrates the freedom and chaos of childhood with abandon, while frankly portraying the ingrained, hurtful and all too familiar ableist attitudes that our society still clings to. This story is fifteen years old and yet the messages within still ring uncomfortably true today. 

If you enjoy reading character studies over tension-filled plots, if you have a soft spot for stories like Les Choristes or Swallow & Amazons, or if you’re looking for joyful, unapologetic disability representation, please pick up this book.

The Gray House is available now. You can order your copy HERE