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Preview
  • Hunger

  • A Memoir of (My) Body
  • By: Roxane Gay
  • Narrated by: Roxane Gay
  • Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (467 ratings)

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Hunger

By: Roxane Gay
Narrated by: Roxane Gay
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Summary

'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.'

New York Times best-selling author Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and bodies, 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 casts an insightful and critical eye on her childhood, teens, and 20s - including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life - and brings listeners into the present and the realities, pains, and joys of her daily life.

With the bracing candour, vulnerability and authority that have made her one of the most admired voices of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to be overweight in a time when the bigger you are, the less you are seen. Hunger is a deeply personal memoir from one of our finest writers and tells a story that hasn't yet been told but needs to be.

©2017 Roxane Gay (P)2017 Little Brown Book Group
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What listeners say about Hunger

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling and heartbreaking.

Loved it. Made me cry. I will be reading more of her work, very compelling.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Woman lead bare

Loved it, exceptional journey through her life thus far. Great purchase, was definitely not disappointed❤

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Real, human and nuanced

An amazing but devastating book, Hunger faces some of the most complicated issues of our time - rape culture; sexism; fatphobia; racism etc. - but does so through a completely human story and through the author's lived experience. Roxane Gay has a phenomenally beautiful way of embodying, in her writing, that old feminist adage that the personal is political and it was particularly wonderful to hear the book narrated by Roxane herself. There was so much to think about in this amazing memoir but also, perhaps more importantly, so much to listen to, to feel, and to sit with. I really think everyone should read it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A memoir of a great mind and a traumatised body

Beautifully written, heart breaking, brave and honest. I felt privileged to hear her story. It felt so private, so intimate and so full of pain and courage and love and strength and hope.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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strong and relateable

i want to thank the author for laying out her life for all of us to share and mirror ourselves in. It is a horrific strong insight into how life in a womans body on planet earth can unfold. I find it educational and in some aspects relateable.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Superb. Harrowing in parts but worth it

Roxanne's narration was excellent. The book is funny in parts but although the tone wasn't grim, it's pretty heavy going. It's definitely helped me develop empathy with people of size, who previously i have barely given a second thought to. She writes beautifully.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic!

This is my first audiobook and I was very hesitant. However, I think I chose the correct audio book! The story was very captivating and narration was very well done. It was also very relatable in many aspects and I loved how Roxane Gay spoke about the societal issues that have also shaped her experience.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Essential reading

This is an excellent, challenging read, which forces you to think about the assumptions you make about people. Brutally honest.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Intense, painful, honest, and so important

I love Roxane Gay's writing. This is such a heartfelt account of the female body, and on how society tries to cram women into painful shapes. A must listen.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully vulnerable, intellectual and funny

Paradoxically melancholy and humourous. Utterly vulnerable, honest, relatable, emotionally elegant, soft sledgehammer of a read

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