Hungered (Holt, 2026)

For readers of Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street and Justin Torres’ We the Animals, this striking debut brings to life an unforgettable young narrator and the complicated, loving, cruel, and generous figures that make up her universe. Sofia’s mother promises that she’ll have her own bedroom to decorate soon. Soon, too, she’ll be able to see her friends, go back to school, and eat the colorful, tempting cakes in the grocery store’s display case. For now, though, twelve-year-old Sofia lives with her mother and brother, Rafa, in their car. For now, Sofia’s days are a blur of freeways and strip malls across the West Coast as her mother searches for a safe place to park for the night. For now, her mother contemplates impossible choices, while Sofia catches glimpses of kindness and cruelty from strangers, and tries to carve out a space and an identity for herself while grappling with her family’s disintegration.

This haunting and lyrical novel captures the fault lines of an existence marked by economic insecurity, exploring what it means to come of age during a moment of displacement. Beautifully rendered and emotionally charged, Hungered is an indelible ode to survival, memory, and the search for home in its many forms.

PRAISE:

“Hungered is a heartrending debut that transforms the invisible reality of housing insecurity into a story of profound humanity. Amanda Rizkalla has crafted a coming-of-age story that never romanticizes hardship, yet finds genuine beauty in small acts of grace and the irrepressible hope of childhood.” ―Shilpi Somaya Gowda, bestselling author of A Great Country and The Shape of Family

“On each page, Rizkalla’s precise and tangible rendering of image, of hope like candy floss, of familial bonds and betrayal―each sentence―is an opening to stay. Readers will devour this world, easily.” ―Dantiel W. Moniz, award-winning author of Milk Blood Heat