The Necessary Hunger: A Novel - Softcover

Revoyr, Nina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1451677901 ISBN 13: 9781451677904

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2011

Synopsis

From the day she meets Raina Webber, Nancy Takahiro knows that the dazzling All-State shooting guard with the ferocious drive to win is the one basketball player who can match her on the court. What she is not prepared for is the tangled surge of pain and desire that leaves her awkward and shy in Raina's presence. And when Nancy's father and Raina's mother fall in love and decide to move in together, Nancy is even more unsettled - she finds herself living under the same roof as her inspiration and rival, and under the scrutiny of friends and neighbors who react with varying degrees of comfort to her Japanese-American and African-American household. This moving and insightful first novel follows Nancy, Raina, and several of their friends as they go through their last year of high school. For some of them, their senior year will be full of glory, anticipation, and the thrills - and frustrations - of the college recruiting process. For others, however, stranded in an inner-city Los Angeles neighborhood that promises little in the way of opportunity, it will mark not only the end of their time in school but also the end of their hopes for a productive future. Nancy and Raina must negotiate the pressures of being star athletes, the complicated terrain of their home situation, and the ambiguities of their own intense, competitive friendship. The Necessary Hunger is about families, friendship, racial identity, and young people who are nearing adulthood with all the cards stacked against them. It is about sports as a means of salvation, about the nature of competition, and ultimately about the various kinds of love.

About this title

Review

"Beats with the pulse of life . . . A smooth, insightful read."—"Time"
"A quietly intimate, vigorously honest, and uniquely American hoop dream: tough and tender, without a single false note."—"Kirkus Reviews"
"I hope this engagingly written novel finds its way into the hands of young women and older one who experience similar passions for women and sports."—Rebecca Brown, author of" The Terrible Girls "and "What Keeps Me Here "

About the Author

Nina Revoyr was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a white American father, and grew up in Tokyo, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles. She is the author of three novels. Nina has been an Associate Faculty member at Antioch University, a Visiting Professor at Cornell University, and the Remsen Bird Visiting Writer at Occidental College. She has also worked for more than a decade in the fields of child welfare and public education. Nina lives in Los Angeles with her English Springer Spaniel, Russell.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1451677901
• ISBN 13: 9781451677904
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368