This is not a tale where the girl is running away from danger - instead, she is the danger.
Their parents rarely speak of their past in Vietnam, except through the language of food. Their meals are a tapestry of cultural memory: spring rolls with nem chua and bowls of phở tái with blood-red beef. In the aftermath of the war, Mẹ and Ba taught Ronny and Tommy that meat was a dangerous luxury, a symbol of survival that should never be taken for granted.
But when tragedy strikes, Ronny's world is upended and she is overtaken by a strange force larger than herself. This newfound power comes with an insatiable hunger for flesh, a craving that is both a saving grace and a potential destroyer.
What Hunger is a visceral, emotional journey through the bursts and pitfalls of female rage.
"Whether it took days, or months, or years, I would come for him. And I would savour the moment."
Catherine Dang is the author of the novels Nice Girls and What Hunger. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, she currently resides in Brooklyn.