Hungry cover art

Hungry

A Biography of My Body

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Hungry

By: Katriona O'Sullivan
Narrated by: Katriona O’Sullivan
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Summary

 'Soaring with compassion, intelligence and hard-won wisdom. Ireland's most important contemporary voice.'
LOUISE KENNEDY, author of Trespasses

'Amazing. I couldn't put it down.'
ELAINE FEENEY, author of As You Were

'Every woman needs to read this book. Every man needs to read this book.'
EDEL COFFEY, author of In Her Place
~ ~ ~
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 odds: 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.

MORE PRAISE FOR HUNGRY:

'I tore through it.' - TANYA SWEENEY, journalist and author of Esther is Now Following You

'As profound and honest as anything I have ever read' - LIZ NUGENT, author of Strange Sally Diamond

'A beautiful telling of determination despite the odds' - Irish Times

'Raw and remarkable' - Irish Independent

PRAISE FOR KATRIONA O'SULLIVAN:

'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

'Moving, uplifting, brave, heroic' - NUALA MCGOVERN, Woman's Hour, BBC Radio Four©2026 Katriona O’Sullivan Abuse Activism & Social Justice Addiction & Recovery Dysfunctional Families Education Parenting & Families Relationships Social Sciences Survival

Critic reviews

Soaring with compassion, intelligence and hard-won wisdom, this standout book confirms that O'Sullivan is arguably Ireland's most important contemporary voice.
One of the most remarkable people you will ever meet.
Utterly compelling, deeply moving and brilliantly written, Hungry is a raw, insightful look at women's complex relationship with their bodies. Every woman needs to read this book. Every man needs to read this book.
Moving, uplifting, brave, heroic.
O'Sullivan is such a vivid, empathetic storyteller who writes so beautifully not just about the correlation between the body and poverty and abuse, but the intersection between sex, body image, culture and dieting. I doubt there's a woman alive who won't immediately see herself in these pages.
Hungry is more than a book: it's a song, a map, a journey. Amazing. I couldn't put it down.
A beautiful telling of determination despite the odds.
Hungry is a raw and brutal account of one woman's battle with her own body, as profound and honest as anything I have ever read.
Raw and remarkable.
All stars
Most relevant
I read this after reading Katrina’s first book, poor. It didn’t disappoint. A raw and beautiful insight, loved and felt every feeling possible throughout.

Amazing

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Well done! This must have been an exhausting but hugely satisfying project to finish . You are one hell of a lady and I really hope that in telling your story , it helps you to acknowledge your own greatness . Some people cruise through life with every advantage and achieve nothing; you have had every single hardship thrown at you and yet you have managed to raise a beautiful family , have a successful relationship, quit multiple addictions and achieve an elite standard of education and research . Few people realise the power of addiction, and I’m truly sorry that your parents didn’t manage to beat it .
Thank you for your book and for addressing topics which need to be addressed. I wish you every success .

An important topic to broach

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It’s hard to explain what you get out of this book! I feel like I’ve been on a journey with Katriona & it was such an emotional experience but I certainly feel like she got there in the end & I was with her all the way! I’m kind of drained because I was so sad for her! I was a lucky girl & had nothing but love at home but I can relate to every single thing about the weight problem! I’ve tried every trick in the book but I too am still “Hungry”
I’m hoping Katriona you continue to thrive & please can we have more!!!!! You are truly amazing!

Katrina’s immense honesty absolutely blew me away!!

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I loved Katriona’s first book “Poor” and knew I’d like this one too.
Understandably it touches on some of the same parts of her first biography, but this time it is more about how those hurts led to the broken relationship with self, which will resonate with so many women.
I raced through this in 2 days & will miss listening to the author’s lovely voice.

Honest, Funny & Relatable.

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Probably the best book of 2026. Perhaps as good as her previous book "Poor." Listening to her struggles as a child growing up in Coventry, made me want to say to her "it's alright now." However, I also know what it was like to feel unwanted and not let go of the past. Like Katriona, I too lived in both Ireland and England

The best

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