A Hunger

by Ross Raisin

For fans of Colm Tóibín, Tessa Hadley and Anne Enright

Genres: Contemporary, Fiction, Novels, British Literature, Food

464 pages, Paperback

Published August 10, 2023

About the author

Ross Raisin is a British novelist. He was born in Keighley in Yorkshire, and after attending Bradford Grammar School he studied English at King's College London, which was followed by a period as a trainee wine bar manager and a postgraduate degree in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Raisin's debut novel God's Own Country (titled Out Backward in North America) was published in 2008. It was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and won a Betty Trask Award. The novel focuses on Sam Marsdyke, a disturbed adolescent living in a harsh rural environment, and follows his journey from isolated oddity to outright insanity. Thomas Meaney in The Washington Post compared the novel favorably to Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, and said «Out Backward more convincingly registers the internal logic of unredeemable delinquency.» Writing in The Guardian Justine Jordan described the novel as «an absorbing read», which marked Raisin out as «a young writer to watch». In April 2009 the book won Raisin the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. He is currently a writer-in-residence for the charity First Story.

In 2013 he was included in the Granta list of 20 best young writers.

Raisin has worked as a waiter, dishwasher and barman.

Reviews

[mk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caring for your kids, your parents, your spouse. I felt this. The exhaustion. The not wanting to do it but doing it anyway. And doing it, even when they've hurt you in the past. Doing it because who else will if you don't. And then the question, who will care for you. I really enjoyed the world of restaurants and the kitchen. Also relentlessly exhausting, also a labour of love. Ross Raisin has written believably from the perspective of a woman. I know her.

[Rue Baldry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful novel, perfectly structured, about some difficult subjects, which is nonetheless infused throughout with love and hope.

The central character is a woman slightly older than me and I remembered every so often as I was reading, with a little shock, that it is written by a man who is quite a bit younger, because she was so believable and real, her experiences often very familiar, and the story told in such an immersing way. She is a flawed character, but only enough to make her believable and interesting, she is always sympathetic and I was always rooting for her. She is brave and determined, too, and, most of all, she's very loving.

In short chapters, her backstory is told incident by incident, interleaved between chapters of her present, which take place over the course of a year, ending not long before the pandemic began (and I couldn't help thinking about how that might have affected her, because she felt so real to me).

A lot of issues end up being, in effect, discussed through this novel, but it never felt issue-led or polemic. It is the very human story of one person's experiences, and many of the things she goes through are quite common (I don't want to spoil anyone's enjoyment by saying any more than that). Yet it is all unique, as humans are.

Despite all the difficulties and even tragedies of this woman's life, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It never felt bleak or depressing. It's a difficult balance, which is managed skilfully. Also, the writing, the descriptions, the little phrases and observations are all delightful, a complete pleasure to read. I read it very quickly, kept being drawn back to it when I was supposed to be doing other things. I wholeheartedly recommend this book without reservation.

[Paul Snelling · Rating 5 out of 5]

a nuanced tale of family life and what remains hidden, as Patrick's strokes lead him into the slow death of dementia. Cleverly written, the back story is revealed in pieces, events suggested, then revealed. A central theme, of assisted suicide is under explored. Ambiguous motives recede as a wayward son returns. We never really find out what sent him away, but acceptance and peace triumph and an anticipated future beckons. Highly recommended.

[Chloë Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love, love, love Ross Raisin's novels and I don't know why he's not better known. This was a sad, immersive and occasionally (very) occasionally funny. His protagonist is a woman, a chef and a carer, and although I'm only one of that list I feel he wrote the truth from start to end. Devoured.

[Marls · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book start to finish and loved how it explains anitas whole life and like its so mundane in a way but a lot of it also really struck home and honestly I only have good things to say

[Joanne Coakley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ross Raisin's A Hunger explores sacrifice, duty, guilt and hope in such a thought-provoking way, and I absolutely loved it.

[Holly Katz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book thirty-eight of 2023 and not one you should read when you are looking for something uplifting.
I bought it at a lovely bookshop in Fowey, Cornwall (the one with the cat in the window), but that’s as far as happy memories go with this book.
Anita is a successful chef at a high-end restaurant (I imagine some Michelin stars might be involved) with an equally demanding private life. Her husband Patrick has been diagnosed with dementia and she struggles with what this means for him, for her and for the dreams she never was allowed to have, but still doesn’t entirely want to let go.
The very short chapters alternate between past and present, which is quite exhausting, but not the main problem of the book.
Ross Raisin is an excellent writer and his descriptions of work in a professional kitchen are just as sophisticated as some of the human interactions in the book, but for the life of me I couldn’t be convinced that a woman like Anita would allow her husband to treat her like a dishrag for decades - he’s disrespectful, condescending and from start to finish such a despicable character that I wanted to throw the book against the nearest wall several times.
There’s also one big secret that’s rather clumsily done - I realised about halfway through which way things were likely to go - and which makes the guilt Anita constantly feels even less convincing.
Not for me, this one, although it slightly grew on me towards the end.

[Jess Barbour · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest, this isn’t something I would normally pick up, but I got tickets to see the author at Leeds Literature festival, so I thought I might as well give it a go. To say this book destroyed me is an understatement… the story follows a sous chef who is juggling work with looking after her husband she is loosing to dementia after a stroke. The chapters flip between the present and the past, slowly giving the reader more information about their live previously, and the husbands health struggles. It deals so well with the guilt of becoming a carer, as well as the other family struggles it brings. I was so in touch with the emotions of the main character, it actually visibly brought my mood down whilst reading. Although I cried in several places while reading, this is one of the best books I’ve read this year, however sad it was.

[holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous read. originally was not a fan of the super short chapters which flick between the present day and protagonist Anita’s life year by year sequentially from childhood to 2018, but the more it went on the more i appreciated how brilliantly this book is written. just a few short pages per year were enough to truly capture anita’s life experiences.
i really liked the way raisin has so vividly written about working as a chef, conjuring the image of a kitchen environment so easily, while also sensitively portraying dementia and the decline in the health of a loved one.
this was a devastating, tender and truly captivating read, i have become utterly absorbed into the lives of these characters and it’s for that reason that i found the non-committal ending to be quite disappointing and lose a star from an otherwise outstanding book.

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. I read it really quickly. I enjoyed that it was written in 2 parts. The current story and the story to get to this point. I really felt for the lady at the centre of the story. She was short changed by all her male relationships. Her husband was not great. He made a big deal of the fact he was a great husband, and she was the one who was making their marriage difficult, that she was the problem. But he was a twat! And he even convinced the children she was the problem, that she was going to waste the family money. I did like that his actions actually made it impossible for her to spend the money to look after him properly which was karma

I liked that we were left with no resolution. Gave me the chance to imagine the perfect ending for her. Cause she really deserved it.

[Iain Snelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book with the present - with Anita looking after her husband with dementia with the help of carers while she struggles with her own busy job as sous-chef - and the back story more or less in alternate chapters as the history of the family is explored through glimpses told chronologically. This is not a device I enjoy, it make for fragments and in this book there are many of them vying for attention - assisted suicide, pressures of caring, growing up in poverty, ambition, chauvinism within the family, bring up children, in-laws, the right to happiness. All too much in what was a slow paced novel. Disappointing.

[Edward Champion · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprising disappointment from the usually reliable (and often dazzling!) Ross Raisin. The stylistic decision to present a character's life in short chapters from 1970 to 2018 is an interesting one and Raisin is also very good at depicting restaurant life. But the emotional thrust of his previous novels just isn't here. This is a case where the style asphyxiates the growth of his characters, despite a number of serious themes like dementia.

[Aaron Myles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put down this deeply emotional novel. Anita is a dream protagonist with bottomless depths to explore and a straight-forward, nuanced narrative style; she will live long in my memory.

The plot is hard-hitting, tense and believable. It left me audibly gasping countless times, full of moments where my heart rate was noticeably rising... not often a book gives me such physical reactions.

Possibly not the most accurate way to describe, but this novel was a joy to read!

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly written insight into the devastating effect of dementia on the family. Anita gives every last drop of herself to her husband Patrick, caring for him as he rapidly declines and sacrifising her own life and happiness to a husband who is definitely unworthy of her devotion. I didn't like the ending at all. It was obscure, despite my reading it twice, and I found the longwinded scenes in the restaurant kitchen boring.

[Freya Thorpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an incredible book about the slow pain of watching someone you’ve known for years lose themselves to dementia. The main character felt so palpable throughout the whole story, she was perfectly flawed but simultaneously a joy of a person to read about. The connections and relationships through the book were so poignant. The pain and loss explored in the book was also brilliantly done. This book left a little hole in my heart.

[Mark Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

It gains cumulative impact. I was a bit lost with all the kitchen terms which inhibited those significant parts of the novel. The device of alternating the latest events with Anita’s early life progressing each year works.
The skill with this book is with the poignancy of the situations and believability of the characters. There isn’t much scope for showy writing.

[Ian tipton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The detail of the struggle that the central character has coping with her job , friendships , and family during her husbands deterioration into dementia is so well written by this outstanding author

[Vanessa Rooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

A strange book

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, powerful, harrowing, moving. Full of hope and determinism. One of the best novels I have ever read.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Mick Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patchy it was an interesting story line about something I’m interested in but a. Lot of gaps left in the end

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautifully written / nuanced though ending felt slightly unfinished

[Victoria Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this too hard a read- couldn’t finish

[Rosie Cunliffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

My god what a bleak bleak book. HOWEVER, the authors choice to use short 3/4 page chapters to tell the protagonists story through the 1970s to 2010s, as well as flipping to her present day life, kept my smooth smooth brain very captivated.

I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed the book but it was like a car crash where I couldn’t look away either. If you’re looking for a book that will bring you any kind of joy at all I do not recommend. Nevertheless, 4 stars.