Review: Claire Fuller's 'Hunger and Thirst' Blends Social Realism and Gothic Horror

Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller review – a blend of social realism and gothic horror

In this lurid, big-boned, often brilliant book about a sculptor and a true-crime documentary, state-of-the-nation commentary and gruesome chills combine Claire Fuller is fascinated by corpses: by the moment when a supple, beloved body turns into inert, heavy matter. In her masterful 2021 Costa winner Unsettled Ground, adult twins veer between pathos and gawky comedy as they attempt to dress and bury their dead mother, floored by the sheer, awful weight of her. Now in Hunger and Thirst, Ursula...

By Lara Feigel