Hunger

A word-of-mouth phenomenon turned cult classic in Korea, Hunger is a visceral, psychologically daring novel that reveals how love and money shape, wound, and consume us.

“A feast for the literary senses.”—Anton Hur, Judge of the International Booker Prize

On an ordinary afternoon, a woman sees her partner murdered in the street. Time freezes. She lifts his body from the pavement, cradles him home, disinfects each inch of skin—and sits down to begin.

As he witnesses his own funeral from beyond, their two voices—living and dead—lament a lifetime of bone-grinding labor in a society that devours everyone whole. But the woman is no longer willing to bow before law, God, or money. In an act of love and rebellion, she transforms his body into her own, entombing him within her flesh so that he may live again.

Raw, furious, and unflinchingly intimate, Hunger is the Korean underground phenomenon that indicts capitalism, mourns lost love, and pushes the boundaries of what the body can endure for justice and survival. A psychologically and philosophically thrilling novel, it cuts to the core of how we are consumed by the world—and how we might consume it back.

“An instant cult classic… You have to read it.”—Harper’s Bazaar

Author Biography

Choi Jin-young is one of South Korea’s best-known authors. Her career started in 2006 when she won the Silcheon Literature Debut Author Award. She has since won many more, including the Shin Dong-yup Literary Prize, Manhae Literary Prize and, most recently, the Yi Sang Literary Award.

Soje is a poet and the translator of Hyemi Lee’s Unexpected Vanilla (Tilted Axis Press, 2020), Choi Jin-young’s To the Warm Horizon (Honford Star, 2021), and Soho Lee’s Catcalling (Open Letter Books, 2021). They also make chogwa, an e-zine that features one Korean poem and multiple English translations per issue.