In our last episode we explored Shelter through art. This time, we turn to literature — and to the way stories have always carried us into places of shelter: houses, huts, castles, bedrooms, tents, hidden rooms, imagined worlds.

But in literature, shelter is rarely only a setting. The places characters inhabit reveal who holds power, who belongs, who is protected and who remains outside. A house can represent safety, but it can also become a prison. A room can offer privacy, but it can also conceal someone from danger. A wall can protect a community, but it can also isolate that community from the world beyond it.

Here are eight works that show just how differently literature has imagined shelter — and why they matter to anyone thinking about THE SUSSEX 2026: Shelter.