Hungered - by Amanda Rizkalla (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

For readers of The House on Mango Street and 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 soon she'll have her own bedroom to decorate. 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 younger brother in their car. For now, Sofia's days are a blur of freeways and strip malls as her mother searches for a safe place to park for the night. For now, Sofia 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, Amanda Rizkalla's 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

"On each page, Rizkalla's precise and tangible rendering of image, of hope like candy floss, of familial bonds and betrayal--each sentence--is an opening to stay. Readers will devour this world, easily."
--Dantiel W. Moniz, award-winning author of Milk Blood Heat

About the Author

Amanda Rizkalla was a Steinbeck Fellow and Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Fellow. She has been a writer-in-residence at Ragdale, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, and the Blue Mountain Center among others. 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 has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.