Excerpt from Hunger by Roxane Gay, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

My father, who had been waiting in the well-appointed atrium, put a hand on my shoulder. "You're not at this point yet," he said. "A little more self-control. Exercising twice a day. That's all you need." I agreed, nodding vigorously, but later, alone in my bedroom, I pored over the pamphlets I had received, unable to look away from the before/after pictures. I wanted, I still want, that after so badly.

And I remembered the result of being weighed and measured and judged, the unfathomable number: 577 pounds. I thought I had known shame in my life, but that night, I truly knew shame. I did not know if I would ever find my way past that shame and toward a place where I could face my body, accept my body, change my body.

Excerpted from Hunger by Roxane Gay. Copyright © 2017 by Roxane Gay. Excerpted by permission of Harper. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.