Fat - by Regina Hofer & Natascha Hoffmeyer (Paperback)

About the Book

A narrative, in graphic novel form, of a young woman coming of age while struggling with an eating disorder and family dysfunction. Documents the author's battle with body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia, which plagued her from her childhood through to adulthood.

Book Synopsis

At sixteen, Regina began cutting back on meals to the point where her hair started to fall out.? Later, she began to binge at night while her family slept. For a long time, she was able to keep her eating disorder a secret, though hiding her problem didn't stop it from harming her emotional and physical well-being. The pressures of wanting to succeed as an artist led her to a nervous breakdown and, finally, a strong desire to start from scratch.
In Fat, Austrian-born author and artist Regina Hofer documents her battle with anorexia and bulimia. This powerful and imaginative graphic novel follows Regina from her childhood home in Upper Austria, where food and family mealtimes were often associated with feelings of personal failure, to art school at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and a violent reckoning with her dysfunctional family.
Vivid and courageous, this memoir will resonate with anyone living through or seeking to understand what it is like to live with an eating disorder.

Review Quotes

"Extraordinary. . . . Juxtaposing surreal imagery and unvarnished confessions, this intense work opens up the pain of living with an eating disorder, pairing artistic innovation with wrenching confessional." -starred review, Publishers Weekly

"Hofer's work is sparse, rich with blacks, and heavy on its impact. . . . An uncomfortable read, but one that nevertheless can evoke a lot of feeling and understanding." - Multiversity Comics

"There are few who command those panel beats like Hofer does, her art amenable to tonal sequences not always easy to follow, but providing readers with reliable unease." - The Comics Journal

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED) -- Rendered in stark black-and-white and repetitive four-panel grids, Hofer's extraordinary debut chronicles her dizzying descent into anorexia and bulimia. She opens with the admission that she still struggles with disordered eating: close-up depictions of her emaciated face from "two weeks ago" fill the first few pages, as if looking into the mirror of the reader ("I am hungry and I'm afraid to eat"). This confrontational open encapsulates the ruthlessly frank approach: Hofer explores the development of her disorder through examinations of her father's violence, her own workaholism, and everyday sexual harassment. These observations are often paired with unexpected and abstract imagery-images of Buzz Lightyear toys, abstract lines, or a small fish float beneath descriptions of illness and anxiety. Her organic linework contrasts white and saturated black backgrounds, avoiding any gray in-between, and even portraits of dancers and flowers feel ghoulishly off-putting. Recalling the work of Ulli Lust, Hofer's disorienting style envelops the reader in a constant, thrumming tension up to her tale's abrupt close. Juxtaposing surreal imagery and unvarnished confessions, this intense work opens up the pain of living with an eating disorder, pairing artistic innovation with wrenching confessional.

About the Author

Regina Hofer was born in Linz, Austria. She is a freelance animator and illustrator, and she holds degrees in graphic design from the Mozarteum University Salzburg and painting and graphic design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Originally published in German, Fat is her first graphic novel.