diff --git a/zict/shmem.py b/zict/shmem.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc9407f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/zict/shmem.py
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import sys
+from collections.abc import Iterable, Iterator
+from multiprocessing.managers import SharedMemoryManager
+from multiprocessing.shared_memory import SharedMemory
+
+from zict.common import ZictBase
+
+
+class SMDB(ZictBase[str, bytes]):
+    """Mutable Mapping interface to a SharedMemoryManager.
+
+    Keys must be strings, values must be bytes
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    directory: string
+
+    Examples
+    --------
+    >>> z = SMDB('/tmp/somedir/')  # doctest: +SKIP
+    >>> z['x'] = b'123'  # doctest: +SKIP
+    >>> z['x']  # doctest: +SKIP
+    b'123'
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, directory: str):
+        self.shmm = SharedMemoryManager(directory)
+        self.shmm.start()
+        self.mapping = dict()
+
+    def __getitem__(self, key: str) -> SharedMemory:
+        return self.mapping[key]
+
+    def __setitem__(self, key: str, value: bytes) -> None:
+        with self.db.begin(write=True) as txn:
+            txn.put(_encode_key(key), value)
+
+    def __contains__(self, key: object) -> bool:
+        if not isinstance(key, str):
+            return False
+        with self.db.begin() as txn:
+            return txn.cursor().set_key(_encode_key(key))
+
+    # FIXME dictionary views https://github.com/dask/zict/issues/61
+    def items(self) -> Iterator[tuple[str, bytes]]:  # type: ignore
+        cursor = self.db.begin().cursor()
+        return ((_decode_key(k), v) for k, v in cursor.iternext(keys=True, values=True))
+
+    def keys(self) -> Iterator[str]:  # type: ignore
+        cursor = self.db.begin().cursor()
+        return (_decode_key(k) for k in cursor.iternext(keys=True, values=False))
+
+    def values(self) -> Iterator[bytes]:  # type: ignore
+        cursor = self.db.begin().cursor()
+        return cursor.iternext(keys=False, values=True)
+
+    def _do_update(self, items: Iterable[tuple[str, bytes]]) -> None:
+        # Optimized version of update() using a single putmulti() call.
+        items_enc = [(_encode_key(k), v) for k, v in items]
+        with self.db.begin(write=True) as txn:
+            consumed, added = txn.cursor().putmulti(items_enc)
+            assert consumed == added == len(items_enc)
+
+    def __iter__(self) -> Iterator[str]:
+        return self.keys()
+
+    def __delitem__(self, key: str) -> None:
+        with self.db.begin(write=True) as txn:
+            if not txn.delete(_encode_key(key)):
+                raise KeyError(key)
+
+    def __len__(self) -> int:
+        return self.db.stat()["entries"]
+
+    def close(self) -> None:
+        self.shmm.shutdown()