Hunger - by Choi Jin-Young (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A word-of-mouth phenomenon turned best-selling cult classic in Korea, Hunger is a visceral, psychologically daring novel that reveals how love and money shape, wound, and consume us.

"A feast for the literary senses."--Anton Hur, Judge of the International Booker Prize

On an ordinary afternoon, a woman sees her partner murdered in the street. Time freezes. She lifts his body from the pavement, cradles him home, disinfects each inch of skin--and sits down to begin.

As he witnesses his own funeral from beyond, their two voices--living and dead--lament a lifetime of bone-grinding labor in a society that devours everyone whole. But the woman is no longer willing to bow before law, God, or money. In an act of love and rebellion, she transforms his body into her own, entombing him within her flesh so that he may live again.

Raw, furious, and unflinchingly intimate, Hunger is the Korean underground phenomenon that indicts capitalism, mourns lost love, and pushes the boundaries of what the body can endure for justice and survival. A psychologically and philosophically thrilling novel, it cuts to the core of how we are consumed by the world--and how we might consume it back.

"An instant cult classic... You have to read it."--Harper's Bazaar

Review Quotes

"Award-winning Choi's spare novella is an anti-love story rife with condemnation for a social system that utterly fails its youth. A cult bestseller in Korea, it arrives in a crisp, clear English translation by Soje... Young adults were instrumental in turning Hunger into a cult classic; the protagonists' unbridled, all-consuming first love may well resonate with mature teens."--Booklist

"Childhood sweethearts Dam and Gu navigate an obsessive on-off love affair that takes a shocking turn in this arresting English-language debut... As in a David Lynch screenplay, Choi's deliberately maudlin prose simultaneously highlights the story's absurdity and horror and elicits sympathy for the characters. This one leaves a mark."--Publishers Weekly

"A meditation about a society that devours everyone whole and how one might consume it back."--Book Riot

"Haunting and raw."--The Complete Review

"A novella of remarkable depth. I savoured every word."--Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, author of The Centre

"Desperate tragedy meets raw beauty. Hunger will consume you as you consume it."--Dean Atta, author of The Black Flamingo

"A gutting, unforgettable ode to doomed love. Which is to say, all love."--Henry Hoke, author of Open Throat

"Mesmerizing. Inject it into my veins again."--Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch

"A haunting novella, as slender as it is profound, where cannibalism is the highest form of devotion."--Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty

"Read at your own peril."--Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face

"Hunger glistens with raw and primal romance. I could not put it down."--Jade Song, author of Chlorine

"Unusual, bold and an instant cult classic, you have to read it to believe it."--Harper's Bazaar

"A gorgeously written (and translated) novel of love and pain and loss and debt and memory and the failures of capitalism and hunger and cannibalism."--Petaluma Argus-Courier