Hungry
A Biography of My Body
Will be published approx. on 4. March 2027
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-1-0354-2774-1 (ISBN)
Description
Hungry is the powerful new memoir from Number One bestselling author Katriona O'Sullivan - a raw, courageous exploration of survival, identity and the lifelong search for self-acceptance.
Raised in a home marked by poverty, addiction and abuse, Katriona defied the odds: from teenage motherhood struggling with her own addictions to becoming a university professor and successful author. But beneath the achievements lay a more private struggle - with her body, her worth, and the unrelenting drive to be enough.
In this fiercely honest memoir, she interrogates how trauma, class and gender shape the way women see themselves - and how society teaches them to measure their value.
Told with stunning courage and vulnerability, Hungry is both a personal reckoning and a powerful reclaiming of body, voice and self. It is one woman's story - and a rallying cry for every woman who has ever felt she had to shrink to survive.
Raised in a home marked by poverty, addiction and abuse, Katriona defied the odds: from teenage motherhood struggling with her own addictions to becoming a university professor and successful author. But beneath the achievements lay a more private struggle - with her body, her worth, and the unrelenting drive to be enough.
In this fiercely honest memoir, she interrogates how trauma, class and gender shape the way women see themselves - and how society teaches them to measure their value.
Told with stunning courage and vulnerability, Hungry is both a personal reckoning and a powerful reclaiming of body, voice and self. It is one woman's story - and a rallying cry for every woman who has ever felt she had to shrink to survive.
Reviews / Votes
Soaring with compassion, intelligence and hard-won wisdom, this standout book confirms that O'Sullivan is arguably Ireland's most important contemporary voice. * LOUISE KENNEDY, author of Trespasses * One of the most remarkable people you will ever meet. * Guardian * Utterly compelling, deeply moving and brilliantly written, Hungry is a raw, insightful look at women's complex relationship with their bodies. Every woman needs to read this book. Every man needs to read this book. * EDEL COFFEY, author of In Her Place * Moving, uplifting, brave, heroic. * Nuala McGovern, Woman's Hour, BBC * O'Sullivan is such a vivid, empathetic storyteller who writes so beautifully not just about the correlation between the body and poverty and abuse, but the intersection between sex, body image, culture and dieting. I doubt there's a woman alive who won't immediately see herself in these pages. * TANYA SWEENEY, journalist and author of Esther is Now Following You * Hungry is more than a book: it's a song, a map, a journey. Amazing. I couldn't put it down. * ELAINE FEENEY, author of As You Were * A beautiful telling of determination despite the odds. * Irish Times * Hungry is a raw and brutal account of one woman's battle with her own body, as profound and honest as anything I have ever read. * LIZ NUGENT, author of Strange Sally Diamond * Raw and remarkable. * Irish Independent *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Headline Publishing Group
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0354-2774-1 (9781035427741)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Dr Katriona O'Sullivan is a professor of psychology and the bestselling author of Poor, winner of Biography of the Year and Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. The memoir has been translated into seven languages, adapted into a sold-out play at Dublin's Gate Theatre, and remained in Ireland's top-ten nonfiction chart for two years. A regular commentator on the BBC and across Irish and international media, she has spoken at Westminster, the UN and UNESCO.
Born in Coventry to Irish parents, her early life was marked by poverty, addiction, teenage pregnancy and homelessness. In 1998 she moved to Dublin, where she entered Trinity College through the access programme and went on to earn a PhD in psychology. Now a professor at Maynooth University, she directs the National Centre for Inclusive Higher Education and leads the award-winning STEM Passport for Inclusion, which has supported over 10,000 young people from underserved communities into higher education and high-status careers.
Born in Coventry to Irish parents, her early life was marked by poverty, addiction, teenage pregnancy and homelessness. In 1998 she moved to Dublin, where she entered Trinity College through the access programme and went on to earn a PhD in psychology. Now a professor at Maynooth University, she directs the National Centre for Inclusive Higher Education and leads the award-winning STEM Passport for Inclusion, which has supported over 10,000 young people from underserved communities into higher education and high-status careers.