Description
'Irresistable.' Megan Abbott
'A gory, gorgeous feast of a book.' Kiran Millwood Hargrave
'This book is crazy. You have to read it.' Bon Appetit
Dorothy Daniels has always had a voracious - and adventurous - appetite. From her idyllic farm-to-table childhood (homegrown tomatoes, thick slices of freshly baked bread) to the heights of her career as a food critic (white truffles washed down with Barolo straight from the bottle) Dorothy has never been shy about indulging her exquisite tastes - even when it lead to her plunging an ice pick into her lover's neck.
There is something inside Dorothy that makes her different from everybody else. Something she's finally ready to confess. But beware: her story just might make you wonder how your lover would taste sauteed with shallots and mushrooms and deglazed with a little red wine.
'An unapologetic, rollicking satire of one woman's insatiable appetite.' Irish Times
'Thrilling and awful.' The Times
'One of the most uniquely fun and campily gory books in my recent memory.' New York Times
'Riotously funny and deliriously unhinged.' Refinery29
READERS ARE DEVOURING A CERTAIN HUNGER:
'Decadent, sleazy, visceral, disgusting. I can't believe this is a first novel.'
'If a female Hannibal starred in Orange is the New Black, it would give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from this novel. ... I could write pages about how much I loved this book but it would still not do it justice. Just read it!'
'This was everything I wanted from a book. Exciting, funny, gory, and most of all the absolutely exquisite writing.'
'I loved this book from beginning to end, it was dark, humorous and also made me a feel a little queasy in places!'
A mouthwatering debut and 'one of the most uniquely fun and campily gory novels in recent memory' (New York Times)
About the Author
Chelsea G. Summers is a freelance writer whose work focuses on sex, politics, tech, fashion and culture. She is a former academic and professor with Ph.D. training in eighteenth-century British literature, a discipline that has proven to be shockingly useful when writing about contemporary culture. She was a columnist for the now defunct ADULT magazine, has a piece upcoming in Roxane Gay's Medium series, and her work has appeared in VICE, Fusion, Hazlitt, The New Republic, Racked, and The Guardian. She splits her time between New York and Stockholm, Sweden, and can be found on twitter @chelseagsummers. This is her first novel.
Reviews
'A macabre banquet of a suspense novel serving up carnal and gustatory surprises . . . Dorothy speaks like Humbert Humbert and behaves like Hannibal Lecter.' ? Washington Post
'Riotously funny and deliriously unhinged, Chelsea G. Summers's A Certain Hunger is the perfect send-up of foodie culture, media, and serial killers-as-sex objects. Patrick Bateman and Hannibal Lecter have nothing on Dorothy Daniels, a 51-year-old food critic, who has an appetite for food and life, sure, but also for killing men. an altogether delicious, deranged read.' ? Refinery29
'In this satire of a particular brand of foodieism, a chic food critic with a (quite literal) voracious appetite for her lovers puts the same care and attention into murder as she does her writing and personal presentation. Not for the faint of heart, it's a novel that might initially get your mouth watering for a fine steak-but perhaps put you off meat for good.' ? Vanity Fair
'Shares with Nabokov's Humbert Humbert a gallows humour and a deliciously synaesthetic, detailed attention to language.' ? i paper
'It's American Psycho as rewritten by Angela Carter. Irresistible.' - Megan Abbott
Book Information
ISBN 9780571372324
Author Chelsea G. Summers
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 279g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm