Catherine Dang What Hunger review, recensie en informatie over de nieuwe roman van de Amerikaanse schrijfster. Op 12 augustus 2025 verschijnt bij Simon & Schuster de tweede roman van Catherine Dang, de uit de Verenigde Staten afkomstige schrijfster. Er is geen Nederlandse vertaling van het boek verkrijgbaar.
Catherine Dang What Hunger review en recensie
- “Tender, bold and brutally honest, What Hunger follows a Vietnamese refugee family struggling with questions of identity and grief. Dang deftly balances a poignant coming of age story and a gripping portrayal of feminine power. A brilliant novel filled with heartbreak and suspense.” (K.T. Nguyen)
- “Raw, violent, tender, beautiful: Catherine Dang’s coming-of-age horror encapsulates both the savagery and fragility of teenage girlhood, like if Jennifer’s Body was elevated by a rich exploration of grief and a Vietnamese refugee family’s experiences in America after fleeing war. Dang’s darkly playful portrayal of cannibalism is vivid, funny, real—and a perfectly gruesome metaphor for female rage. It builds and boils, and the final twist had me cheering.” (Ashley Winstead)
What Hunger
- Auteur: Catherine Dang (Verenigde Staten)
- Soort boek: Amerikaanse roman
- Taal: Engels
- Uitgever: Simon & Schuster
- Verschijnt: 12 augustus 2025
- Omvang: 288 pagina’s
- Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook / luisterboek
- Prijs: $ 27,99 / $ 14,99 / $ 24,99
- Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol / Libris
Flaptekst van de roman van Catherin Dang
A haunting coming-of-age tale following the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Ronny Nguyen, as she grapples with the weight of generational trauma while navigating the violent power of teenage girlhood.
It’s the summer before high school, and Ronny Nguyen finds herself too young for work, too old for cartoons. Her days are spent in a small backyard, dozing off to trashy magazines on a plastic lawn chair. In stark contrast stands her brother Tommy, the pride and joy of their immigrant parents: a popular honor student destined to be the first in the family to attend college. The thought of Tommy leaving for college fills Ronny with dread, as she contemplates the quiet house she will be left alone in with her parents, Me and Ba.
Their parents rarely speak of their past in Vietnam, except through the lens of food. The family’s meals are a tapestry of cultural memory: thick spring rolls with slim and salty nem chua, and steaming bowls of pho tái with thin, delicate slices of blood-red beef. In the aftermath of the war, Me 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. Her sense of self and her understanding of her family are shattered. A few nights later, at her first high school party, a boy crosses the line, and Ronny is overtaken by a force larger than herself. This newfound power comes with an insatiable hunger for raw meat, 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. Ronny’s Vietnamese lineage and her mother’s emotional memory play a crucial role in this tender ode to generational trauma and mother-daughter bonding.
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.
