Supper Club

WINNER of the GUARDIAN 'NOT THE BOOKER' PRIZE 2019 
 
BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - Vogue, TIME, Vulture, Woman and Home, and many more 
 
'Subversive, radical, written with total glee and rollicking sense of unlimited possibility. Williams is one to watch' Stylist 
 
If you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into? 
 
Twenty-nine year old Roberta has spent her whole life hungry. So she invents Supper Club: a secret society for women sick of bad men and bad sex. Fed up of being told to talk less, take less, be less, they gather after dark to feast and dance through the night. But as their bodies expand, so do their horizons, their desires - and their urge to break the rules. 
 
You look hungry. Join the club. 
 
'Superb... Hilariously funny and deeply moving' Guardian Not the Booker Prize 
 
'Engrossing, ambitious, joyful as well as dark - which is so close to the bone and so necessary. I can't wait to read her next book' Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self 
 
'Cool and knowing, jam-packed with cultural references, not to mention mouthwatering recipes' Metro 
 
'Daring, funny, humane, delightful. She's the real thing' Sam Jordison, Guardian 
 
'For reading while eating in the bath and licking your lips. There's no other book to read this month' Lit Hub 
 
'Darkly delicious. A celebration of female power and friendship' Sunday Mirror 
 
'Riotous, bold, wild and witty' Sunday Express

A radical retake on the notion that women must starve themselves to meet society's demands... Written with total glee and rollocking sense of unlimited possibility, Lara Williams is one to watch

Sophisticated, attentive, visceral, sensual.... Following in the footsteps of Elena Ferrante and Sally Rooney, Williams explores the shifting dynamics of female friendships

Exquisite. Wise and generous, subtle and superbly attentive... The food in this book eats you, imparting a depth of flavour that resurfaces stylishly when you least expect it

Cool and knowing, jam-packed with cultural references, not to mention mouthwatering recipes... Kicks back against the degradations and appetite-shaming strictures of a notionally feminist age

Supper Club is SO GREAT. Utterly perfect on loneliness, isolation, friendship, love, appetite, body image. It's about millennial women but I'm reading and nodding: 'Whole Mood'

Powerful and original, insightful and moving... The voice feels akin to Sally Rooney's: colloquial, precise, at once uneasy about its place in the world and determined to stand up for itself... Williams suggests convincingly that cooking is as rigorous and complex as any art form

Like Fight Club but with food... About rebellion and power and all the desires women have suppressed for so, so long

Supper Club will speak to parts of you that you didn't know were yearning. A thought-provoking read that will make you hungry for more

A smart, zeitgeisty, genuinely affecting coming-of-age-tale... Lara Williams is very much a talent in her own right

For reading while eating in the bath and licking your lips... There's no other book to read this month

Totally invigorating... With elements of Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter, Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Phoebe Waller Bridge's Fleabag, Supper Club is a succulent, unapologetic celebration of female friendship, female rage, and female appetite

[A] delicious first novel... Williams writes with warmth, wit, and wisdom, serving up distinctive characters and a delectably unusual story. Supper Club will satisfy your craving for terrific writing and leave you hungry for more from this talented writer

A darkly funny coming-of-age story like no other... Supper Club is the ravenous read we all need

A bacchanalian debut novel (that) will leaving you panting and ravenous

Extremely well done... Williams's enthusiasm for good food is attractive, and she writes with a pleasingly fluent style

Darkly delicious... A celebration of female power and friendship with wonderful food writing

Engrossing, humorous and candid, this exploration of a woman on the verge of finding herself makes for an enthralling novel

An homage to female rage and the bonds of friendship, Supper Club will entice readers like a gourmet feast and leave them just as satisfied

Williams explores the complex relationship many women have with their deepest desires

A bacchanalian homage to women's rage and female friendship

Courtney Maum, author of 'I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You'

A love letter to those friends, both retained and lost, who have an irrevocable influence on who we are and how we understand ourselves. It's a powerful interrogation of the current status of women within western societies. But it is also a provocation to demand more, a challenge to hold each other to account, and an enticement to celebrate the vibrancy of women's lives with the raucous abandon they deserve. It's the counter fairy tale: biting the apple brought wisdom and confidence, not a loss of consciousness. No prince necessary

Rebellious and subversive... Williams excels at visceral descriptions of bodies and food alike

A bold and fresh story about food, friendship and feminism...compelling reading.

A small utopia celebrating the intoxications of female friendship and standing as a private bulwark against patriarchy

Lara Williams is the author of Treats, Supper Club and The Odyssey. Her fiction has won the Guardian 'Not the Booker' Prize and been nominated for the BBC National Short Story Award, the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Edinburgh First Book Award, the Saboteur Awards and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Lara Williams lives in Manchester and is a contributor to the Guardian, Independent, Times Literary Supplement, Vice, Dazed and others.

Twenty-nine year old Roberta has spent her whole life hungry - until the day she invents Supper Club. 
 
Supper Club is a secret society for hungry women. Women who are sick of bad men and bad sex, of hinted expectations to be thinner, smile more, talk less. So they gather at night to feast and drink and dance, seeking the answer to a simple question: if you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into? 
 
This is a story about the hunger that never goes away. It is a story about friendship, food and female rage. Above all, it is about the people who make us who we are - who lead us astray and ultimately save us.

Lara Williams

Slyly poignant and wickedly funny... A serious vibe

Readers who enjoy Melissa Broder and Ottessa Moshfegh will appreciate this surreal trip through a troubled woman's psyche

Lara Williams is the queen of smart modern satire. I could read her all day

Williams succeeds in satirising the seemingly unmockable: the overwhelming absurdities of modern life...

I have never read anything like this... Deliciously unpredictable

Equal parts satire and elegy, coming from the very edge of the abyss... Unsettling, risk-taking, profoundly moving - I loved it

Astonishing, subversive and darkly funny - another dazzler of a novel from Lara Williams

Zeba Talkhani, author of 'My Past is a Foreign Country'

Slyly humorous, sharp, courageous and at times devastating... The Odyssey is a wildly original satire

Frances Cha, author of 'If I Had Your Face'

Ingrid has spent the past five years of her life working on the world's largest cruise ship. In that time, she has completed hundreds of meaningless tasks. She has watched dozens of long-term guests kick the bucket. She has made a grand total of two friends. And she has barely set foot on land. 
 
Now at last Ingrid has a chance to make something of herself. The ship's (highly myserious and reclusive) captain has chosen her, out of thousands of employees, to enter a special, secret club. All he asks in return is total co-operation...

Lara Williams

Praise for The Odyssey

Slyly poignant and wickedly funny... A serious vibe

Readers who enjoy Melissa Broder and Ottessa Moshfegh will appreciate this surreal trip through a troubled woman's psyche

Lara Williams is the queen of smart modern satire. I could read her all day

Slyly poignant and wickedly funny... A serious vibe

Readers who enjoy Melissa Broder and Ottessa Moshfegh will appreciate this surreal trip through a troubled woman's psyche

Lara Williams is the queen of smart modern satire. I could read her all day

Slyly poignant and wickedly funny... A serious vibe

Readers who enjoy Melissa Broder and Ottessa Moshfegh will appreciate this surreal trip through a troubled woman's psyche

Lara Williams is the queen of smart modern satire. I could read her all day

Books by Lara Williams

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