Supper Club

　　蘿貝塔(Roberta)一直以來都試著控制自己的體重。接近三十歲的時候，她漫無目標、與生活脫離。困在一個不用動腦的工作，並且不願意再繼續餵養自己的對食物的熱情，她壓抑自己的胃口。但當她遇見史黛薇(Stevie)，一位熱情、充滿活力的藝術家，她們建立起的熱切友誼改變了蘿貝塔，尤其是她對食物的渴望。她們一起創立了職志在夜晚縱情進食的俱樂部：讓一群女人聚集起來同樂，而非互相譴責飢餓。每一頓聚餐都擁有一個主題：文學作品裡的女英雄們，或者是公主們。這些女人在夜晚集合，痛快地大吃，直到吃不下為止；她們擁抱自己改變的身體；她們停止對周遭的世界道歉。

　　對這群女人來說，這個俱樂部是她們去發現、去探索她們所能在這個世界佔據多少的位置和空間的方式──不僅僅是形體，同時也是聲量與所獲得的尊重。然而隨著俱樂部逐漸擴張，不只是增加了會員的人數，同時也產生了許多混亂，蘿貝塔被迫要在慾望和身體的脆弱性，以及她不斷壓抑的過去之間，取得平衡。(文/博客來編譯)

　　For fans of Sally Rooney's NORMAL PEOPLE: A sharply intelligent and intimate debut novel about a secret society of hungry young women who meet after dark and feast to reclaim their appetites--and their physical spaces--that posits the question: If you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into?

　　Roberta spends her life trying not to take up space. At almost thirty, she is adrift and alienated from life. Stuck in a mindless job and reluctant to pursue her passion for food, she suppresses her appetite and recedes to the corners of rooms. But when she meets Stevie, a spirited and effervescent artist, their intense friendship sparks a change in Roberta, a shift in her desire for more. Together, they invent the Supper Club, a transgressive and joyous collective of women who gather to celebrate, rather than admonish, their hungers. They gather after dark and feast until they are sick; they break into private buildings and leave carnage in their wake; they embrace their changing bodies; they stop apologizing. For these women, each extraordinary yet unfulfilled, the club is a way to explore, discover, and push the boundaries of the space they take up in the world. Yet as the club expands, growing in both size and rebellion, Roberta is forced to reconcile herself to the desire and vulnerabilities of the body--and the past she has worked so hard to repress. Devastatingly perceptive and savagely funny, Supper Club is an essential coming-of-age story for our times.

作者簡介

　　Lara Williams is the author of the short story collection A Selfie as Big as the Ritz, and her writing has been featured in The Guardian, The Independent, Vice, the Times Literary Supplement, McSweeney's, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is featured in Best British Short Stories 2017. She writes and teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. She lives in Manchester, England.