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Hunger and Thirst
  • Published: 7 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405977746
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

Hunger and Thirst

Formats & editions
EBook
7 May 2026
Audiobook
7 May 2026
Hardback
7 June 2026
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The new novel from Women's Prize-shortlisted, Costa Award-winning author of Unsettled Ground - an addictively propulsive, richly nuanced and haunting story of horrors without and within

1987: After a childhood trauma and years in and out of the care system, sixteen-year-old Ursula finds herself with a new job in the postroom of 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 the promise of a readymade, hodgepodge family.

But as Sue’s behaviour 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. It's a decision that will haunt her for decades.

Thirty-six years later, Ursula is a renowned, reclusive sculptor living under a pseudonym in London when her identity is exposed by true-crime documentary-maker who is digging into an unsolved disappearance. But it is not only the filmmaker who has discovered Ursula’s whereabouts, and as her past catches up with her present, Ursula must work out whether the monsters are within her or without.

From critically acclaimed and award-winning author, Claire Fuller, Hunger and Thirst is a compelling and chilling tale of loneliness and female friendship, of the dangerous line between wanting and needing, and of how far a person will go to truly belong.
  • Published: 7 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405977746
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352
Categories:

About the author

Claire Fuller

Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children. She is also an artist and sculptor and has had several short stories published. Our Endless Numbered Days is her first novel.

CF

Also by Claire Fuller

The Memory of Animals
Unsettled Ground
Bitter Orange
Swimming Lessons
Our Endless Numbered Days
See all

Praise for Hunger and Thirst

I was enthralled, rapt, utterly unable to put this book down. Claire Fuller, a master of psychic suspense, has done it again

Lindsay Hunter, author of Hot Springs Drive

Harrowing and tender ... the kind of book to clear a weekend for, the kind of resonant nightmare that lingers long after its end

Hayden Casey, author of A Harvest of Furies

Atmospheric, psychologically vivid, and unputdownable ... it frightened and enthralled me

Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam

A gothic chiller — haunting, artful, suspenseful, complex, and cinematic

William Landay, author of All That is Mine I Carry With Me

‘An absolute masterpiece. Utterly absorbing, genuinely unsettling … like all the most terrifying horror films of the 70’s and 80’s and all the most scary ghost stories’

Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things

Gothic, disturbing, and mesmerisingly well-written, Hunger & Thirst is like nothing I’ve read before. Claire Fuller’s ability to generate suspense, revulsion, and disquiet within a nuanced and intelligent world is second to none.

Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane

A truly chilling story ... I was entirely captured in this novel’s haunting spell

Essie Fox, author of The Fascination

Gripping, haunting and deeply visceral, this book is a beautiful nightmare that I just can’t shake off

Tobi Coventry, author of He's the Devil

Addictive, disturbing and suspenseful. It reminded me of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine at her most vivid. Ursula is a rare creation

Amanda Craig

Unremittingly unsettling, propulsive and tense. Fuller excels at depicting outsiders, and writes with such precision and economy. Truly terrifying.

Sarah Vaughan, author of Little Disasters

Such a propulsive book - but at the same time, such a deep examination of art and violence and the slipperiness at the heart of both memory and friendship. I was absolutely gripped by it

Jenn Ashworth, author of Ghosted

Love story, psychological thriller, highly literary horror - Claire Fuller pulls off all three with this brilliant novel that is familiar and frightening in equal measure. Most of all, it's GREAT FUN. I absolutely loved it

Kathleen MacMahon, author of Nothing but Blue Sky

Unremittingly unsettling, propulsive and tense. Fuller excels at depicting outsiders, and writes with such precision and economy. Truly terrifying

Sarah Hall

I've read everything Claire Fuller has published. Her writing is so emotional and intelligent in looking at the real struggles that so many people go through. I'm really passionate about her writing and so excited for this new book

YouTube: Eric Karl Anderson – My Most Anticipated Books of 2026
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