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The Hungry Ghost
Bradley Cohen has dedicated his life to cooking.
He trained in the best kitchens, chased perfection across continents, and finally opened the restaurant that was supposed to make him a legend.
But it failed.
Now he’s trapped in the a collapsing identity, a haunted marriage, and the humiliating job he swore he’d never take — hosting a microwave cooking show in his hometown of Huntington Beach.
Yet the real failure isn’t the restaurant.
It’s the thing Bradley has never been able to the day his older brother, Daniel, died… and the silence that followed.
The Hungry Ghost is a darkly hilarious, razor-sharp, deeply human novel about grief, ambition, family, and the strange ways we try to survive when life turns into something unrecognizable. Told through multiple voices — including the ghosts of those who never truly leave us — it’s a story filled with outrageous humor, brutal honesty, and moments of surprising tenderness.
As Bradley stumbles between fame and shame, between food and love, between the living and the dead, he must confront the one truth he has spent his entire life
You can’t outrun hunger — not for success, not for forgiveness, and not for the people you’ve lost.
For anyone who has ever loved someone fiercely, failed spectacularly, or tried to cook their way back to themselves… The Hungry Ghost will stay with you long after the last page.
He trained in the best kitchens, chased perfection across continents, and finally opened the restaurant that was supposed to make him a legend.
But it failed.
Now he’s trapped in the a collapsing identity, a haunted marriage, and the humiliating job he swore he’d never take — hosting a microwave cooking show in his hometown of Huntington Beach.
Yet the real failure isn’t the restaurant.
It’s the thing Bradley has never been able to the day his older brother, Daniel, died… and the silence that followed.
The Hungry Ghost is a darkly hilarious, razor-sharp, deeply human novel about grief, ambition, family, and the strange ways we try to survive when life turns into something unrecognizable. Told through multiple voices — including the ghosts of those who never truly leave us — it’s a story filled with outrageous humor, brutal honesty, and moments of surprising tenderness.
As Bradley stumbles between fame and shame, between food and love, between the living and the dead, he must confront the one truth he has spent his entire life
You can’t outrun hunger — not for success, not for forgiveness, and not for the people you’ve lost.
For anyone who has ever loved someone fiercely, failed spectacularly, or tried to cook their way back to themselves… The Hungry Ghost will stay with you long after the last page.
257 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 8, 2026
About the author
Josh Goldfaden
3 books6 followersJosh Goldfaden's short stories have appeared in Meridian, Mid-American Review, New England Review, Salmagundi, the Sewanee Review, Washington Square, ZYZZYVA, and others. His first book, a short story collection, Human Resources, was published by Tin House Books in April 2007. It was shortlisted for the 2007 Story Prize, and awarded the 2008 Devil's Kitchen Prose Award. Publisher's Weekly awarded this book one of its Starred Reviews, noting that, "Admirably, Goldfaden roams widely and erratically, from surfers living on an exclusive beachfront to a bizarre set of contemporary pirates who give up robbing yachts to join a pirate-busting agency. Goldfaden is an undeniable talent."
A recipient of a 2008 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, his short story, "Disorder Destroyers," was the Editor's Choice for the Mid American Review's 2006 Sherwood Anderson Award, and his story "Nautical Intervention" was optioned for film by the actress, Bebe Neuwirth. In 2008, Josh completed the screenplay adaptation of this story for GreeneStreet Films. His story "Looking at Animals" was awarded the 2007 Lytle Fiction Prize from the nation's oldest literary journal, The Sewanee Review, and a short film based on that story is currently in production with Big Beach Films, the producers of Little Miss Sunshine. Josh is currently finishing up a novel.
Formerly a Jenny Craig stock-boy, a ceiling fan salesman, a car parker in Bavaria, a pizza-maker in Swabia, a waiter, and an instructor in NYU's Expository Writing program, Josh Goldfaden currently operates the web site design/management company, WebAha!, with his wife, the poet Jennifer Chapis. He lives in Oceanside, California.
A recipient of a 2008 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, his short story, "Disorder Destroyers," was the Editor's Choice for the Mid American Review's 2006 Sherwood Anderson Award, and his story "Nautical Intervention" was optioned for film by the actress, Bebe Neuwirth. In 2008, Josh completed the screenplay adaptation of this story for GreeneStreet Films. His story "Looking at Animals" was awarded the 2007 Lytle Fiction Prize from the nation's oldest literary journal, The Sewanee Review, and a short film based on that story is currently in production with Big Beach Films, the producers of Little Miss Sunshine. Josh is currently finishing up a novel.
Formerly a Jenny Craig stock-boy, a ceiling fan salesman, a car parker in Bavaria, a pizza-maker in Swabia, a waiter, and an instructor in NYU's Expository Writing program, Josh Goldfaden currently operates the web site design/management company, WebAha!, with his wife, the poet Jennifer Chapis. He lives in Oceanside, California.
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