Big Girl

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...

A BBC RADIO 2 BOOKCLUB PICK

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTRE FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE, THE GOTHAM BOOK PRIZE AND THE LAMBDA AWARD

About the Author

Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, PhD is the author of 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.

Reviews

"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" —Jacqueline Woodson, author of Red at the Bone

"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

"There are three books on earth that I would give anything to be able to write and reread until the sun 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" —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

"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" —Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun

"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" —Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of Libertie

Dimensions: 12.62 x 1.45 x 19.81 cm