Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller
Summary (from the publisher): From the celebrated author of Bitter Orange and Swimming Lessons comes an eerie and captivating new novel of complicated friendship and the desperate, sometimes disastrous need to belong. 1987: After a childhood trauma and years in and out of the care system, sixteen-year-old Ursula finds herself with a new job delivering mail at a local art school, a bed in a halfway house, and—delightfully— some new friends, including wild-child, Sue. When Ursula is invited to join a squat at The Underwood, a mysterious house whose owners met a terrible end, she can’t resist this hodgepodge family. But as Sue’s behavior and demands become more extreme, Ursula who has always been hungry—for food—and more importantly for love, acceptance and belonging, carries out her friend’s terrible dare. And, for this, Ursula finds herself literally haunted. Thirty-six years later, Ursula is a renowned, reclusive sculptor living under a pseudonym in London when h...
