Hungered - by Amanda Rizkalla (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

For readers of Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street and Justin Torres' We the Animals, this striking debut brings to life an unforgettable young narrator and the complicated, loving, cruel, and generous figures that make up her universe.

Sofia's mother promises that she'll have her own bedroom to decorate soon. Soon, too, she'll be able to see her friends, go back to school, and eat the colorful, tempting cakes in the grocery store's display case. For now, though, twelve-year-old Sofia lives with her mother and brother, Rafa, in their car. For now, Sofia's days are a blur of freeways and strip malls across the West Coast as her mother searches for a safe place to park for the night. For now, her mother contemplates impossible choices, while Sofia catches glimpses of kindness and cruelty from strangers, and tries to carve out a space and an identity for herself while grappling with her family's disintegration.

This haunting and lyrical novel captures the fault lines of an existence marked by economic insecurity, exploring what it means to come of age during a moment of displacement. Beautifully rendered and emotionally charged, Hungered is an indelible ode to survival, memory, and the search for home in its many forms.

Review Quotes

"Hungered is a heartrending debut that transforms the invisible reality of housing insecurity into a story of profound humanity. Amanda Rizkalla has crafted a coming-of-age story that never romanticizes hardship, yet finds genuine beauty in small acts of grace and the irrepressible hope of childhood."
--Shilpi Somaya Gowda, bestselling author of A Great Country and The Shape of Family

About the Author

Amanda Rizkalla is a recent Steinbeck Fellow and Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Fellow. She has been a writer-in-residence at Ragdale, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, Mountain Words, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Monson Arts, and Blue Mountain Center. After graduating from Stanford University, she received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a Kemper Knapp Fellow. Her work has received support from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and nominations for the Pushcart Prize.