The daughter of a Belgian diplomat, Amelie had an itinerant childhood, ranging from Tokyo to Peking and Paris to New York by way of Bangladesh. Recounting these formative journeys right up to her return to Japan in 1989, and the Kobe earthquake, "The Life of Hunger" is an extraordinary examination of the self, and perhaps Amelie's most mature and moving work to date.
In a wistful, clever and unusual novel, Amelie Nothomb casts herself as hunger: hunger for experience, hunger for life, hunger for sweetness and, in what is the book's nucleus, hunger for hunger (the period during which she was afflicted by acute anorexia). Recounting the formative journeys of her youth, from Tokyo to Peking to Paris to New York, "The Life of Hunger" is a brilliant and moving examination of the self, and perhaps Amelie's most mature and moving work to date.
In a wistful, clever and unusual novel, Amelie Nothomb casts herself as hunger: hunger for experience, hunger for life, hunger for sweetness and, in what is the book's nucleus, hunger for hunger (the period during which she was afflicted by acute anorexia). Recounting the formative journeys of her youth, from Tokyo to Peking to Paris to New York, "The Life of Hunger" is a brilliant and moving examination of the self, and perhaps Amelie's most mature and moving work to date.
