The Nao Of Brown

By Glyn Dillon

Heat level

Behind closed doors

Twenty-eight-year-old Nao Brown, who’s hafu (half Japanese, half English), is not well. She’s suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and fighting violent urges to harm other people. But that’s not who she really wants to be. Nao has dreams. She wants to quiet her unruly mind; she wants to get her design and illustration career off the ground; and she wants to find love, perfect love. Nao’s life continues to seesaw. Her boyfriend dumps her; a toy deal falls through. But she also meets Gregory, an interesting washing-machine repairman, and Ray, an art teacher at the Buddhist Center. She begins to draw and meditate to ease her mind and open her heart—and in doing so comes to a big realization: Life isn’t black-and-white after all . . . it’s much more like brown.

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Severity reflects intensity, not value — “central theme” means a warning is a core part of the book, not that the book is bad.

Anxiety on-pagecentral theme
PTSD or complex traumacentral theme
Suicidal ideationscene

The Nao Of Brown

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