The Room: Hubert Selby Jr. (Penguin Modern Classics)

'It is quite an experience to be locked up all by yourself in any size room,' says the anonymous narrator of Hubert Selby Jr.'s second novel. What follows is a startling series of recollections and fantasies that illuminate the workings of a prisoner's unhinged mind. He yearns for his violent childhood, rages against obscure authorities, and imagines enacting horrible revenge on those who imprisoned him. The prisoner's remand cell becomes the scene of a surreal mental torture.

Disorienting, nightmarish and structurally inventive, The Room is a shocking examination of the suffering humans can inflict on each other.