Hungered - by Amanda Rizkalla (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Goodreads Editors' Book Pick

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. Beautiful, evocative, 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

One of Stanford Magazine's Summer 2026 Reading Recommendations

"This is difficult subject matter, told superbly, and offers much to discuss and ponder."
--Booklist (starred review)

"With spare, elegant prose, Rizkalla captures the world and its contradictions perfectly through Sofia's eyes. . . .Thoughtful and wise, Hungered is a powerful and resonant read."
--Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"Rizkalla offers a well-written and haunting look into a childhood marked by instability. A heart-wrenching and powerful debut encapsulating the heaviness of class, race, and adolescence."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Told with raw emotion and unflinching honesty, Rizkalla's powerful debut captures the heartbreak of a family in crisis and the quiet resilience of a young girl who can't make sense of the world but still dares to dream."
--Library Journal

"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

"In this impressive debut, Rizkalla magically gifts us Sofia, a fierce but vulnerable protagonist who serves as the glue in her disintegrating family. Rizkalla's narrator shines in these stunning vignettes that portray a family in crisis. As she navigates her landmine life and her own conflicted identity, Sofia sometimes takes charge and often takes risks--and you will cheer for her all the way."
--Susan Muaddi Darraj, award-winning author of Behind You is the Sea

"In this captivating debut, Amanda Rizkalla presents the world as seen through the eyes of a young narrator grappling with the hard truths of a life filled with secrets, instability, and betrayal. Mixed in with these hard truths is the softness of adolescence, complete with first days of school, first friendships, and first crushes. At its core, Hungered is a story of survival--how we survive our childhoods, how trauma survives across generations, and how one family learns to survive unimaginable circumstances. This is a novel to return to when you're searching for wonder in all the small places."
--Kai Harris, award-winning author of What the Fireflies Knew

"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 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 the 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.