Blue Hunger

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Blue Hunger, the fifth novel from Italian author Viola Di Grado, follows Ruben – taking her dead brother’s name – as she navigates the cultural shift of her international escape, while still blindsided by her loss. It details the unglamorous side to loss; losing the will to live, nihilism and the gross parts in between. After her twin's death, a solitary young woman leaves Rome for Shanghai, the city where her brother Ruben had long dreamed of opening a restaurant. A 2021 NEA fellow, she holds an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Oregon.

She talked about tea leaves, how you have to pick them when they’re as delicate as a newborn’s hair. In abandoned factories and dilapidated slaughterhouses, Xu pushes Ruben to extremes of pleasure and pain that she has never experienced before, to a place where language breaks down and passion becomes consumption. A danse macabre for the millenials … In Hollow Heart, Di Grado elegantly and playfully thematises the emptiness of unquestioned vessels of meaning (which is to say, words) with the story of a girl who has taken her own life before she has even really lived it.Eradicating everything, reaching into the heavens with glass and steel, reaching like a demon pleading for light. When almost everything was turned off, at night, like that night with Fox, it seemed like the future was holding its breath, waiting, waiting to show you that everything was going to be all right. The protagonist can’t help imagining Xu with other girls in the friendship group, and she constantly wants more of her lover, annoying her with her neediness and her desire to know more about her, to have more of her. This was a hazy yet electrifying story of an Italian woman grieving the loss of her twin brother, who moves to China and begins a toxic and intoxicating relationship with a sadistic woman.

Placing an Italian woman in China adds to the sense of displacement, isolation and alienation as the protagonist mourns the death of her twin brother whose name she takes, and pursues a relationship with the elusive Xu whose own propensity for sexualised biting and ritualistic unclothing that follows the direction of reading ideograms play into the structure of the text.I loved the dreamlike stream of consciousness writing, as well as the exploration of sapphic desire and intense lust-filled destruction. At the heart of the story is a woman devastated by the death of her twin, seeking refuge in prescription medication, alcohol and lonely nights in front of Chinese TV.

She had to clean them every Thursday when she was little, and she did it with her heart in her mouth, afraid of dropping them. In spite of all this, she thinks to herself, “I was in China, halfway across the world, but alas, I was still me. It moves with a steady, compact agility, like a ship gesturing towards a mid-sea battle … The final scene is a spectacular feat, managing to be both unexpected, and exquisitely tender. A moment in which the two images – the wicked fox and the amorous woman – no longer coincided, their edges separating like a deck of cards thrown on the floor.Or will she imagine another life for herself by severing the organic connections she felt towards Xu and the city? Despite its shortcomings, Blue Hunger makes for an interesting look at an intriguing city, and at a woman trying not to lose herself completely in its snares, and in her grief. It’s all nicely done, if slightly gruesome at times, but it does give off distinct ‘lost in translation’ vibes on occasion. At dawn, after that avalanche of words, she closed the curtains and brought back the darkness, the only thing that belonged to both of us. Change country: -Select- Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Azerbaijan Republic Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Islands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Cook Islands Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Fiji Finland French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Republic Gambia Georgia Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Israel Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Republic of the Congo Reunion Romania Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea Sri Lanka Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands (U.