Big Girl
A BBC Radio Two Book Club Pick. 'Absolutely incredible' Candice Carty-Williams
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- £5.49
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
A BBC RADIO 2 BOOKCLUB PICK
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTRE FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE, THE GOTHAM BOOK PRIZE AND THE LAMBDA AWARD
*'Absolutely incredible. Beautiful, powerful writing. These pages will stay with me forever' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS, author of QUEENIE
*'A gift as big, beautiful and complicated as living itself' Jacqueline Woodson, author of RED AT THE BONE
*'Hilariously funny and quietly devastating' Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of PATSY and HERE COMES THE SUN
*'There are three books on earth that I would give anything to be able to write and reread until the suns burns us up. Big Girl is one of those books' Kiese Laymon, author of HEAVY
Growing up in rapidly gentrifying 90s Harlem, Malaya struggles to fit into a world that makes no room for her. She's funny, creative and smart, but all people see - even those who love her - is her size. At eight, she is forced to go to Weight Watchers; at twelve, her parents fear she'll be taken from them; by sixteen, a gastric bypass is discussed.
But tensions at home are mounting as rapidly as Malaya's weight, and soon a family tragedy forces her to finally face the source of her hunger on her own terms...
An extraordinary debut novel shot through with remarkable nuance and tenderness, Big Girl is the unforgettable portrait of a queer Black girl as she learns to take up space in the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sullivan (the collection Blue Talk and Love) charms in her stunning debut novel about a Black girl's coming-of-age. While growing up in gentrifying Harlem during the 1980s and '90s, Malaya Clondon is irrevocably impacted by other people's perceptions and judgments of her weight. At eight, her mother, Nyela forces her to attend Nyela's Weight Watchers meetings, and she endures cruel remarks from classmates at her predominantly white school. When she's 16, Nyela and Malaya's father, Percy, fight over the prospect of Malaya undergoing a gastric bypass. Throughout, Sullivan offers a nuanced portrayal of Malaya's difficulties in navigating a world in which other people are unable to see her beyond her size, even after a terrible loss shakes Malaya's world and reorients her family. All of Sullivan's characters—even the cruel ones—brim with humanity, and the author shines when conveying the details of Malaya's comforts, such as Biggie Smalls lyrics, the portraits she paints in her room, the colors she braids into her hair, and the sweet-smelling dulce de coco candies she eats with a classmate with whom she shares a close and sexually charged friendship. This is a treasure.
