Hunger: A Novella And Stories

The novella and five stories that make up this collection reveal the lives of immigrant families haunted by lost loves: A ghost seduces a young girl into a flooded river; a mother commands a daughter to avenge her father's death; and in the title novella, a woman speaks from beyond the grave about her tragic marriage to an exiled musician whose own disappointments nearly destroyed their two daughters. The characters, whose culture and families have been lost to the forces of history, mistrust connection even as they hunger for attachment.

In exquisite prose Lan Samantha Chang weaves the forces of war and magic, food and desire, ghosts and family, into haunting tales that reveal the mysteries of the heart. Again and again, she asks the question: Is ordinary love not a kind of burden, stifling and terrifying in the choices and responsibilities it forces on us? And yet we yearn for it, suffer for it, define ourselves by our experience of it, cannot live without it.

Nominated for numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN Center USA-West's annual literary award, this debut collection by a young Chinese-American writer has garnered stellar reviews and invited comparisons to Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston. These stories reveal the lives of immigrant families haunted by lost loves: a ghost seduces a young girl into a flooded river; a mother commands a daughter to avenge her father's death; and a woman speaks from beyond the grave about her tragic marriage to a man whose own disappointments nearly destroy their two daughters. In luminous prose Lan Samantha Chang weaves the forces of war and magic, food and desire, ghosts and family, into haunting tales that signal the arrival of an exciting new writer and "a work of gorgeous, enduring prose" (The Washington Post).