boxed in

In the bare little room in which our story begins, there are no windows or doors. The walls are dull and absent of decoration. A single stark, bright white strip light, searing to the eye, remains on at all hours of the day and night. There are no clocks, and there are no calendars. The furniture is battered and plain, and completely devoid of comfort.

Inside this room resides a young woman, introduced simply to us as A. Closeted away in the cold little room, A meticulously avoids the world outside, choosing instead to while away the long, slow hours religiously polishing a simple wooden photo frame which sits, sentinel-like, at the end of the thin little blanket under which she sleeps. Fragile and vulnerable, it is entirely unclear how she came to be here – nor is it possible to say whether the room functions as A’s prison, or as her sanctuary. Just one thing remains clear:

She is not alone.

For sharing her dismal quarters with her is nothing more and nothing less, than a simple, brown wooden Box. At first glance, it appears unlikely to capture much interest … and yet there is a certain something in its bearing which immediately draws the eye. This is a Box with a personality, a Box with charisma; this is a Box like no other. A Box of complex motivations, of quick wit and cunning. A Box filled almost to the brim with impregnable confidence and smug self-satisfaction. A tactician. An entertainer. An inspired magician. Simultaneously enigmatic and sardonic, withering and wry, domineering and impish, this is a Box with a voice all of its own. Slippery, false and impossible to pin down, it has one mission in life – one sole raison d’être, to which it devotes its every waking thought…

Making A’s life an everyday, living hell.

Deftly interweaving wry irreverence with heart-rending emotion, Boxed In is a story to which we can all relate: an ordinary young woman, riddled with paralysing fear, crushing grief and an almost impenetrably cynical perspective on life, is forced to find the strength to confront the agonies of her past and, in so doing, forge a new hope from the ashes.