Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

From the New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.

“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.”

In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved—in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.

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Published Jun 12, 2018

320 pages

Average rating: 8.15

106 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Tina Everitt
Jul 07, 2025
10/10 stars
I have very different specific details, but so much of this felt like reading my soul. Thank you Roxane for your vulnerability, I have never felt so seen.
kurzblättern
May 06, 2025
8/10 stars
„Hunger“ gleicht einer Mutprobe auf 300 Seiten, welche zum Ziel hat alles Unaussprechliche niederzuschreiben. Es macht einen sprach- und fassungslos und lässt damit die Gefühle Betroffener nur erahnen. Es macht alles unerträglicher und schwer aushaltbar, was wahrscheinlich der beste Beweis für eine korrekte Beschreibung der Realität von Übergewicht in unserer Gesellschaft ist. Es wird aber auch ganz deutlich, dass es nicht nur um das Augenscheinliche von Körpern, Gewicht und Aussehen geht, sondern dass man durch den Blick hinter all das, beginnt zu verstehen.
Harrietaspy
May 04, 2025
6/10 stars
It is difficult to read personal books that talk about how much a person hates themselves and loves themselves. But we all have things that we dislike about our lives and things we love. I found myself contemplating parts of my life that I'd love to revisit and other parts that I would change but I would definitely not revisit. In that way, it was a good memoir.
Littlemissleepsalot
Jan 28, 2025
10/10 stars
So good for anyone who has weight issues or body image issues. Fast-read.
margardenlady
Dec 27, 2023
8/10 stars
Gay shares her difficult path through life and the effect that a [then] undisclosed rape at age 12 framed her life and self image for years. Although primarily a revelation of her life as a very tall, very large woman has made her a target for fat shaming from even the most well intentioned persons, she also examines sexual abuse, race and eating disorders. This book and did more for my understanding and appreciation of the need for Universal Design in public places than anything else. Thank you.

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