Hunger
Paperback Published on: 26/06/2025
Price: £16.99
Bookseller Reviews
View all
A haunting and poignant short story that packs a punch!
Hunger is a gut wrenching, thought provoking and philosophical novel about the lengths we go to for love and the complex struggles faced in everyday life, ... READ MORE
A Feast for the Senses
Choi Jin-Young’s novella explores beautifully the fine details of love, through a love story that is equal parts epic and disturbing. Following the dual po... READ MORE
For What Do You Hunger?
Told through a series of snapshot chapters, we get to know the lives of Dam and Gu, alternating between their two view points.
In many ways they are entwi... READ MORE
Heartbreaking and little disturbing
This is a tale of love, grief, and the trap of money.
Dam and Gu were always meant to be. Through each character we learn their past, how they meet, how ... READ MORE
A novella that packs a punch
I was expecting more of a body horror/cannibalism fest but instead I got a beautifully raw story about the hunger to be with someone who understands you co... READ MORE
Packs a huge punch for such a little book
Read this in one sitting and enjoyed every moment of it. It’s beautifully written, giving the feeling of a single candle burning itself out in an evening. ... READ MORE
A story you'll be thinking about long after reading
At it core this is a love story. A dark, tragic love story.
This will not be for everyone but if you're into unusual, thought provoking or twisted stori... READ MORE
Horrifying and Heartbreaking
A bizzare tale tracing the origins of a cannibalistic act.
A fever-dream-esque coming of age story and tragic love story that demands to be read. I devour... READ MORE
Disturbingly beautiful
Choi Jin-Young’s exploration of love and grief is brutal, yet so hauntingly beautiful. Hunger is truly one of a kind and is one of the only books that has ... READ MORE
Heartfelt and unsettling…
A surprising book that I expected to be more gory than heartfelt, but I was mistaken in the best of ways.
Sad, beautiful and deeply tragic, what begins ... READ MORE
Hunger
For such a small novella there is a lot going on. This is the story of Gu and Dam. This is a story about love and obsession. It is philosophical and blunt.... READ MORE
romance isnt dead yet
So this is a love story. The tender tale of a woman who finds her boyfriend dead in the street and decides to eat him
Hunger for your Thoughts
This book intrigued me with the description of a girlfriend mourning their murdered boyfriend by eating him. But it is much more than that. As it shows how... READ MORE
Synopsis
The Korean cult classic phenomenon.
A generational hit with over a quarter of a million copies sold.
A woman finds her man murdered on the street - and time stands still.
Until she cradles his corpse to her chest and carries it home, where she disinfects every inch of skin before seating herself to begin. What follows reverberates from this realm into the next, where the man is witnessing his own funeral.
Together, the lovers lament a lifetime of working themselves to the bone in a country sucking everyone dry - but time's up. The woman is already eating and beating them at their own barbaric game as she entombs the body in her own, where her soulmate will live again.
The word-of-mouth sensation that's on everyone's lips, Hunger is a psychologically and philosophically thrilling cult classic that cuts to the very heart of love, money, and the things they do to us.
Hunger charted for over half a year, breaking records for literary fiction in South Korea.
Publisher information
- Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group
- ISBN: 9781840919004
- Number of pages: 208
- Dimensions: 216 x 135 mm
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allBrutually Romantic
Part brutal criticism of Korean societal standards and part doomed love story, Hunger is unflinching in its realism and will haunt you long after you’ve tu... READ MORE
Hunger
This book was like one long stream of consciousness flowing from the past to the present. I didn’t always know who I was or when it was, but that’s probabl... READ MORE
Not for me
Um... "Hunger" by Choi Jih-young is a difficult book to review because I'm not sure I know what was going on. Although the book was very short (about 2 hou... READ MORE
A thoughtful look at lifelong love
Hunger is a novella exploring the lifelong love of two people. Two people who cannot live without each other. It explores the need for the other person -... READ MORE
Hunger by Choi Jin-Young
Hunger by Choi Jin-Young is a bold and unforgettable novella that fuses heartbreak, psychological horror, and a haunting vision of love and grief. The stor... READ MORE
An Agonising Love Story
The exploration of love, grief, loneliness & humanity within this book was interesting. Despite being a short book it certainly covered a lot of substance... READ MORE
Different!
Purchased this yesterday, simply intrigued by the cover & blurb.
A very different read, absolutely unique.
But perhaps not something to read over your lu... READ MORE
Nihilistic and hopeful
Wow, oh wow, oh wow. If something can be both nihilistic and hopeful at once, this is it. It’s the simplest of books, the premise laid out within the first... READ MORE
Odd but good
Well, where or how to start?! This was odd but odd in the way that you can’t stop reading it!