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Hungry: A biography of my body
Hungry is the powerful new memoir from Number One bestselling author Katriona O'Sullivan - a raw, courageous exploration of survival, identity and the lifelong search for self-acceptance.
Raised in a home marked by poverty, addiction and abuse, Katriona defied the from teenage motherhood struggling with her own addictions to becoming a university professor and successful author. But beneath the achievements lay a more private struggle - with her body, her worth, and the unrelenting drive to be enough.
In this fiercely honest memoir, she interrogates how trauma, class and gender shape the way women see themselves - and how society teaches them to measure their value.
Told with stunning courage and vulnerability, Hungry is both a personal reckoning and a powerful reclaiming of body, voice and self. It is one woman's story - and a rallying cry for every woman who has ever felt she had to shrink to survive.
PRAISE FOR 'POOR':
'One of the best [books] I have read about the complexities of poverty . . . one of the most remarkable people you will ever meet' Guardian
'Powerful - Katriona is a legend' Barry Keoghan
'Raw, passionate and resolutely honest - I'll never forget it' Annie Mac
'I read Poor in one sitting I found it so compelling . . . moving, uplifting, brave, heroic' Nuala McGovern, Woman's Hour, BBC Radio Four
'Moving, funny, brave and original - just like the author . . . absolutely incredible' Roísín Ingle, Irish Times Women's Podcast
'One of the books of the year' Patrick Kielty, Late Late Show, RTÉ One
'One of the most important books I have ever read ... a beautiful telling of determination despite the odds' Lynn Ruane, Irish Times
'Raw and remarkable' Irish Independent
'A book of empowerment and hope' Patricia Scanlan
Raised in a home marked by poverty, addiction and abuse, Katriona defied the from teenage motherhood struggling with her own addictions to becoming a university professor and successful author. But beneath the achievements lay a more private struggle - with her body, her worth, and the unrelenting drive to be enough.
In this fiercely honest memoir, she interrogates how trauma, class and gender shape the way women see themselves - and how society teaches them to measure their value.
Told with stunning courage and vulnerability, Hungry is both a personal reckoning and a powerful reclaiming of body, voice and self. It is one woman's story - and a rallying cry for every woman who has ever felt she had to shrink to survive.
PRAISE FOR 'POOR':
'One of the best [books] I have read about the complexities of poverty . . . one of the most remarkable people you will ever meet' Guardian
'Powerful - Katriona is a legend' Barry Keoghan
'Raw, passionate and resolutely honest - I'll never forget it' Annie Mac
'I read Poor in one sitting I found it so compelling . . . moving, uplifting, brave, heroic' Nuala McGovern, Woman's Hour, BBC Radio Four
'Moving, funny, brave and original - just like the author . . . absolutely incredible' Roísín Ingle, Irish Times Women's Podcast
'One of the books of the year' Patrick Kielty, Late Late Show, RTÉ One
'One of the most important books I have ever read ... a beautiful telling of determination despite the odds' Lynn Ruane, Irish Times
'Raw and remarkable' Irish Independent
'A book of empowerment and hope' Patricia Scanlan
312 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 23, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 6, 2026
Hungry was a gift to read. Katriona has the ability to make you feel seen without ever seeing you. Congratulations Katriona it’s a triumph.
April 18, 2026
Probably more of a 3.5 star rating but more of a four for sure than a three. A raw, deeply moving ode to O’Sullivan’s body and her tumultuous relationship with it through poverty, abuse, addiction, childbirth, disordered eating and womanhood. Since I read Katríona’s other book I did find a lot of repetition but nonetheless enjoyed it. Her anecdotes helped future reinforce that our bodies are instruments and not ornaments and how we are so much more than our physiques.
April 10, 2026
Phenomenal!!! Go preorder it!! Thanks so much to Headline for my copy
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May 11, 2026After reading Poor, there was never any chance I wasn’t going to read Hungry. Publication day arrived and there I was in the bookshop, copy in hand, because some writers become automatic reads.
This book is a searingly honest account of Katriona O’Sullivan’s lifelong relationship with her traumatised body. It is raw, brave, difficult and, at times, almost painfully recognisable.
O’Sullivan has a rare gift for writing about the things many women feel but do not always know how to say out loud. Shame. Hunger. Self-disgust. Ambition. Class. The need to be loved. The fear of being seen. The exhausting, lifelong work of trying to be enough.
What makes Hungry so powerful is that it never feels like a lecture. It feels like someone reaching across the page and saying: you’re not the only one. There is enormous comfort in that, even when the subject matter is bruising.
This is a memoir about poverty, trauma, addiction, motherhood, recovery and education, but it is also a book about space. Who is allowed to take it up. Who is taught to shrink. Who learns to apologise for their body before they have even understood it.
O’Sullivan writes with startling courage about how poverty, gender and trauma shape the way women see themselves, and how brutally society teaches us to measure our worth. Smaller body. Smaller voice. Smaller needs. Smaller life.
What makes this memoir so powerful is that she never writes from a place of superiority or neat resolution. There’s no polished “and then I healed” narrative here. Instead, it feels raw, complicated and incredibly human. She writes about her body as something shaped by trauma, survival, motherhood, addiction, class and expectation, and she does it with enormous courage.
It is uncomfortable at times because it forces you to examine the ways society measures women constantly, and the ways many of us internalise that judgement without even noticing anymore.
But this book refuses the shrinking.
For every woman who has ever made herself smaller to survive, this one will sit heavy in the chest.
Essential reading.
Katriona is some woman for one woman!
This book is a searingly honest account of Katriona O’Sullivan’s lifelong relationship with her traumatised body. It is raw, brave, difficult and, at times, almost painfully recognisable.
O’Sullivan has a rare gift for writing about the things many women feel but do not always know how to say out loud. Shame. Hunger. Self-disgust. Ambition. Class. The need to be loved. The fear of being seen. The exhausting, lifelong work of trying to be enough.
What makes Hungry so powerful is that it never feels like a lecture. It feels like someone reaching across the page and saying: you’re not the only one. There is enormous comfort in that, even when the subject matter is bruising.
This is a memoir about poverty, trauma, addiction, motherhood, recovery and education, but it is also a book about space. Who is allowed to take it up. Who is taught to shrink. Who learns to apologise for their body before they have even understood it.
O’Sullivan writes with startling courage about how poverty, gender and trauma shape the way women see themselves, and how brutally society teaches us to measure our worth. Smaller body. Smaller voice. Smaller needs. Smaller life.
What makes this memoir so powerful is that she never writes from a place of superiority or neat resolution. There’s no polished “and then I healed” narrative here. Instead, it feels raw, complicated and incredibly human. She writes about her body as something shaped by trauma, survival, motherhood, addiction, class and expectation, and she does it with enormous courage.
It is uncomfortable at times because it forces you to examine the ways society measures women constantly, and the ways many of us internalise that judgement without even noticing anymore.
But this book refuses the shrinking.
For every woman who has ever made herself smaller to survive, this one will sit heavy in the chest.
Essential reading.
Katriona is some woman for one woman!
May 11, 2026
This one of the most impactful books I have ever read. The way it made me feel and made me think and made me angry about this world - will live with me forever. Katriona is so articulate, honest, raw and wise in this book. She threads all the intertwined parts of poverty, abuse, gender, class, achievements and beauty standards so well together under the umbrella of “Hunger”. I devoured it in just a few sittings; a rare occurrence for me. Five stars, I would have given fifty if I could!
May 12, 2026
Heartbreaking story, definitely a bit repetitive if you’ve already read her book ‘Poor’ but still a great book highlighting the struggles of trauma related body image and disordered eating.
May 15, 2026
Just finished this book with tears in my eyes. Thank you for sharing your life with us Katriona, a story I will be recommending to every woman I know ❤️
April 25, 2026
So raw, gutwrenching and powerful.
May 12, 2026
Hungry: A Biography of My Body by Katriona O’Sullivan published April 23rd with Hachette Ireland and is described as ‘a raw, courageous exploration of survival, identity and the lifelong search for self-acceptance.’
In 2023 I was in a taxi in Dublin on my way to the train station, following a wonderful evening at the Irish Book Awards. It was the year that Katriona O’Sullivan’s staggeringly powerful biography Poor had picked up two awards. At that point I hadn’t read the book but the taxi driver had. He pulled out the copy that he carried with him to read between jobs and was telling me how incredible and impactful her words were. It took me until 2025 to finally dive in, after my daughter passed her copy onto me, telling me in no uncertain words that I had to read it. I never wrote a review for Poor because I just could not put into words the emotions I felt upon completion. Here was a woman who had suffered horrors beyond my comprehension yet, through pure grit and determination, and some unstoppable force, was now a professor of psychology and a voice for the voiceless.
When O’Sullivan wrote Poor, she honestly thought that that was it, her story had been told. But as life continued, so did her struggles, so she made a decision to get back to her writing. This time though her focus was on her body and her constant battle with her personal reality as a woman in today’s society versus expectation.
In Hungry: A Biography of My Body Katriona O’Sullivan reflects on her earlier years. She reminds readers of Poor of those dark times when she battled, against all the odds, to survive the abuse and the poverty of growing up in a family with two addicts as caregivers. She goes deeper into some of her memories, right back to that time when she was a carefree little girl doing cartwheels with her legs in the air and not a worry in the world, clueless as to what lay ahead. But what that little girl also didn’t know was that she was brave, courageous and fearless, someone who would become a beacon of hope for others. someone who would strive forward in her career, find a loving partner and have children.
Like most women today, O’Sullivan’s insecurities are many. Her honesty about her constant battle with her weight and her need to look a certain way is so utterly refreshing. The relentless push on women to reach unattainable perfection is across every media outlet with us all under pressure to try certain products and treatment that will make us look a certain way. These marketing ploys will make us happy right? Wrong. We all know this but O’Sullivan doesn’t beat around the bush, she says it like it is.
‘The pressure to be slim and young, thick and curvy or thin and waif-like affects all of us – but what we do to get there differs on where we are from’
O’Sullivan doesn’t have the answers but what she does have is a platform and she uses it with positive intention. There is no filter. There is no sanitising of her words. She is who she is…and that is more than enough.
Hungry: A Biography of My Body is a personal biography, an inspiring story about one woman’s struggle to learn self-acceptance and self-worth. But it is also an exploration of what it is to be a woman today and the societal pressures that weigh us down. A raw and compassionate book, Hungry: A Biography of My Body is profoundly affecting and relatable. It is savage and uncompromising. Parts of it are every woman’s story but ultimately this is Katriona O’Sullivan’s story, one written with dignity, integrity and authenticity.
In 2023 I was in a taxi in Dublin on my way to the train station, following a wonderful evening at the Irish Book Awards. It was the year that Katriona O’Sullivan’s staggeringly powerful biography Poor had picked up two awards. At that point I hadn’t read the book but the taxi driver had. He pulled out the copy that he carried with him to read between jobs and was telling me how incredible and impactful her words were. It took me until 2025 to finally dive in, after my daughter passed her copy onto me, telling me in no uncertain words that I had to read it. I never wrote a review for Poor because I just could not put into words the emotions I felt upon completion. Here was a woman who had suffered horrors beyond my comprehension yet, through pure grit and determination, and some unstoppable force, was now a professor of psychology and a voice for the voiceless.
When O’Sullivan wrote Poor, she honestly thought that that was it, her story had been told. But as life continued, so did her struggles, so she made a decision to get back to her writing. This time though her focus was on her body and her constant battle with her personal reality as a woman in today’s society versus expectation.
In Hungry: A Biography of My Body Katriona O’Sullivan reflects on her earlier years. She reminds readers of Poor of those dark times when she battled, against all the odds, to survive the abuse and the poverty of growing up in a family with two addicts as caregivers. She goes deeper into some of her memories, right back to that time when she was a carefree little girl doing cartwheels with her legs in the air and not a worry in the world, clueless as to what lay ahead. But what that little girl also didn’t know was that she was brave, courageous and fearless, someone who would become a beacon of hope for others. someone who would strive forward in her career, find a loving partner and have children.
Like most women today, O’Sullivan’s insecurities are many. Her honesty about her constant battle with her weight and her need to look a certain way is so utterly refreshing. The relentless push on women to reach unattainable perfection is across every media outlet with us all under pressure to try certain products and treatment that will make us look a certain way. These marketing ploys will make us happy right? Wrong. We all know this but O’Sullivan doesn’t beat around the bush, she says it like it is.
‘The pressure to be slim and young, thick and curvy or thin and waif-like affects all of us – but what we do to get there differs on where we are from’
O’Sullivan doesn’t have the answers but what she does have is a platform and she uses it with positive intention. There is no filter. There is no sanitising of her words. She is who she is…and that is more than enough.
Hungry: A Biography of My Body is a personal biography, an inspiring story about one woman’s struggle to learn self-acceptance and self-worth. But it is also an exploration of what it is to be a woman today and the societal pressures that weigh us down. A raw and compassionate book, Hungry: A Biography of My Body is profoundly affecting and relatable. It is savage and uncompromising. Parts of it are every woman’s story but ultimately this is Katriona O’Sullivan’s story, one written with dignity, integrity and authenticity.
May 7, 2026
Please go and read both Poor and Hungry, and then share them with everyone you know. We need to talk about poverty and the importance of looking after each other and giving people opportunities, just as much as about trauma and its impact on our bodies and minds. Nobody does it as well as Katriona O’Sullivan.
I listened to Hungry on Spotify, and it was amazing to hear the book narrated by Katriona herself.
I listened to Hungry on Spotify, and it was amazing to hear the book narrated by Katriona herself.
May 3, 2026
I bought three copies- two for work friends (we had all loved her first book) after the author spoke at our work place on various themes tying in her values to our companies goals. This book stirred something in me. She writes so well making it so easy to understand someting so heavy and hard. This was an incredible book. Thank you Katriona!
May 5, 2026
It ended a bit abruptly in my opinion, the telling was rushed in the end of the book. I felt like my cup of tea was half empty when the chat was over and the other person stood up and left.
May 11, 2026
4.5⭐️
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
What a fantastic book. If you loved Poor, you’ll definitely want to read this too. It’s raw, heartbreaking and it really captures the struggle of learning to accept yourself. A beautiful memoir.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews