‘Pulses with a simmering rage’ Monika Kim, author of The Eyes Are the Best Part

This is not a tale where the girl is running away from danger – instead, she is the danger. It’s the summer before high school and Ronny Nguyen spends her days reading trashy magazines. Standing in contrast is her brother Tommy, the pride of their immigrant parents and destined to be the first in the family to attend college.

Their parents, M? and Ba, rarely speak of their past in Vietnam, except through the language of food. Mealtimes are a tapestry of cultural memory: spring rolls with nem chua and bowls of ph? tái with blood-red beef. In the aftermath of the war, M? and Ba taught Ronny and Tommy that meat was a dangerous luxury, a symbol of survival that should never be taken for granted.

But when tragedy strikes, Ronny’s world is upended and she is overtaken by a strange force larger than herself. This newfound power comes with an insatiable hunger for flesh, a craving that is both a saving grace and a potential destroyer. What Hunger is a visceral, emotional journey through the bursts and pitfalls of female rage.

“Whether it took days, or months, or years, I would come for him. And I would savour the moment.”