Product Description

A short novel of extraordinary power, set in Leningrad during the WWII siege, reminiscent of Rachel Seiffert and Bernhard Schlink in both its brevity and its impact. When German troops surround Leningrad and cut off food supplies in the autumn of 1941, no one imagines that the siege will last almost three years and take hundreds of thousands of lives. As the first 'hungry winter' sets in, the city's residents strip the bark off trees, boil and eat moss-covered stones, and trade priceless antiques for half a loaf of bread - and sex for a chunk of sugar. But the scientists at the Institute of Plant Industry pledge to protect their collection of rare seeds, painstakingly gathered from all over the world, no matter what the human cost. Through the eyes of one of the scientists we see how his small group of colleagues, including his quietly determined wife, Alena, splinters between those who would preserve their principles at the price of starvation, and others who turn to deception - and more sinister measures - to survive. His memories of the years before the war, when he travelled throughout the world and tasted the sensual pleasure's of life's lush richness, offset his heartbreaking account of the most wrenching decisions a human being can make. Hunger is a powerful, stunningly precise and beautifully written novel about human nature under life's harshest pressures, and the beauty and pain that can come of it. Reminiscent of Rachel Seiffert's The Dark Room and Bernhard Schlink's The Reader in its brevity, spareness and power, it is a quite remarkable debut.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1194645 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

J.M. Coetzee
...an exploration of love and betrayal, as well as for some richly sensual evocations of the pleasures of eating

Philadelphia Enquirer
‘Elise Blackwell’s spare, searing first novel… a finely angled vision into hell, a spare portrait of the banality of survival.’

San Francisco Chronicle
‘Harrowing… Written in appropriately spare prose, the novel is insightful and gripping.’

Customer Reviews

A study of appetites.
From his home in New York, an elderly man, whose name we never know, looks back on his life in the Soviet Union and remembers the physical and moral agonies he endured during the Siege of Leningrad in 1941. In a spare and finely crafted story, he tells of his moral choices, decisions, and actions and how he came to survive the siege while others around him starved.

When the siege begins, the speaker and his wife Alena are both botanists at the Research Institute of Plant Industry. Their goal has been to collect unique seed and plant specimens from all over the world, to preserve species, and to develop new strains of better plants. As the siege develops, the institute holds a meeting to discuss the preservation of its collections, including several hundred tubers, which could, conceivably, feed some of the city's hungry people. Ultimately, they decide that they will preserve the institute's collections at all costs. The speaker, who has not supported this decision wholeheartedly, wonders whether the decision has really been made out of moral bravery and intellectual courage, or if it is purely the result of naivete--is it right for people who have never known starvation to make such decisions for others to follow?

As the siege takes its toll, the speaker constantly fantasizes about food and the trips he's made around the world to gather specimens, and he often associates the exotic meals he's had abroad with the lovers he's taken during these trips. Imagery of food and love, seeds and fertility, propagation and new life, and fruitfulness and barrenness fill the novel, with clear parallels drawn between the overwhelming urge for food during times of extreme starvation and the desire for love-making during times of plenty. Always these images are counterbalanced by the realities of people starving during the 900-day siege. When the speaker finally succumbs to hunger and eats some seeds at the institute, he feels sadness but no remorse. "I was justified to take what I needed," he says. "I barely took more." By eating the seeds, he survived to continue his research.

Every image is perfect here, not a word is wasted, and the multi-leveled themes are developed with both delicacy and precision. Despite the subject matter, the author resists the temptation to tug on the heartstrings, preferring to present events factually and without elaboration, enhancing their power by juxtaposing contrasting scenes. Scenes of deprivation are contrasted with scenes of plenty, ugliness with beauty, barrenness with fruitfulness, and starvation with love. References to ancient Babylon provide a wider historical perspective and contribute to a fully satisfying, beautifully crafted novella. Mary Whipple