Imprint
- Virago
- Virago
- Virago
- Virago
Big Girl: A BBC Radio Two Book Club Pick. 'Absolutely incredible' Candice Carty-Williams
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Intergenerational relationships
-
Imprint
Virago
- Paperback Sep 10, 2024 | 9780349017860 | RRP $24.99 Pre-Order
- Trade Paperback Jul 11, 2023 | 9780349017853 | RRP $32.99 Buy Now
- Hardback Oct 10, 2023 | 9780349017846 | RRP $45.00 Buy Now
- e-Book Oct 6, 2022 | 9780349017839 | RRP $15.99 Buy Now
-
Imprint
Virago
- Paperback Sep 10, 2024 | 9780349017860 | RRP $24.99 Pre-Order
- Trade Paperback Jul 11, 2023 | 9780349017853 | RRP $32.99 Buy Now
- Hardback Oct 10, 2023 | 9780349017846 | RRP $45.00 Buy Now
- e-Book Oct 6, 2022 | 9780349017839 | RRP $15.99 Buy Now
-
Imprint
Virago
- Paperback Sep 10, 2024 | 9780349017860 | RRP $24.99 Pre-Order
- Trade Paperback Jul 11, 2023 | 9780349017853 | RRP $32.99 Buy Now
- Hardback Oct 10, 2023 | 9780349017846 | RRP $45.00 Buy Now
- e-Book Oct 6, 2022 | 9780349017839 | RRP $15.99 Buy Now
-
Imprint
Virago
- Paperback Sep 10, 2024 | 9780349017860 | RRP $24.99 Pre-Order
- Trade Paperback Jul 11, 2023 | 9780349017853 | RRP $32.99 Buy Now
- Hardback Oct 10, 2023 | 9780349017846 | RRP $45.00 Buy Now
- e-Book Oct 6, 2022 | 9780349017839 | RRP $15.99 Buy Now
A brilliant debut from a hugely talented writer. Compelling and compassionate, Big Girl is an unforgettable portrait of a queer Black girl as she learns to take up space in the world. It's also a love letter to a community that is vanishing before the protagonist's eyes -Harlem in the 80s and 90s - its music, flavours and sounds.
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.
Praise for Big Girl: A BBC Radio Two Book Club Pick. 'Absolutely incredible' Candice Carty-Williams
-
What is a child's body worth when it is big, Black and female - when it is under constant demand to be something other than what it naturally is? In Mecca Jamilah Sullivan's achingly beautiful coming-of-age debut novel, Big Girl, this body carries the weight of an entire neighborhood ... Big Girl triumphs as a love letter to the Black girls who are forced to enter womanhood too early - and to a version of Harlem that no longer exists - New York Times
-
I ate this up in one greedy, joyous gulp. I fell in love with Malaya Clondon from the very first page. This book is hilariously funny and quietly devastating - a compelling narrative about what it means to define ourselves and make space for our bodies as women
-
Absolutely incredible. Beautiful, powerful writing. These pages will stay with me forever'
-
'Mecca Jamilah Sullivan has given us a gift as big, beautiful and complicated as living itself, filled with everyday people who in her gifted hands, show us the love and struggle of what it means to be inside bodies that don't always fit with the outside world. I found myself cheering for Percy, Nyela, the Harlem streets and of course, for Malaya
-
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. The sound, the expansiveness of the whispers, the critical, brilliant, sometimes bruising, beautiful Black girlness explored in this novel is literally second to none... I know I have just read and reread a new American classic that we as a culture and country desperately need. Believe that
-
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan has delivered a singular coming-of-age story. A book about the vulnerabilities of living in the body of a young Black girl, Sullivan has created a portrait of young adulthood as quietly revolutionary as Gwendolyn Brooks' Maud Martha or Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John. Resetting the conversation about girlhood, desire, bodies and appetites, this book is a revelation for those who care about the rich, varied lives of Black youth
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, PhD is the author of The Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms in the African Diaspora, winner of the Modern Language Association William Sanders Scarborough Prize, and the short-story collection, Blue Talk and Love, winner of the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Fiction from Lambda Literary. She is Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University. A native of Harlem, she currently lives in Washington, DC.
Find a book you’ll love, get our Word Up newsletter
.png?auto=compress&w=150&h=60&fit=crop&fm=jpg)
.png?auto=compress&w=150&h=60&fit=crop&fm=jpg)
Hachette Australia acknowledges and pays our respects to the past, present and future Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our head office is located on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
