The Hunger Between Us
by Marina Scott
High School    Farrar    304 pp.
11/22    9780374390068    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780374390075    $10.99

In the summer of 1942, Leningrad is about to enter its second year under siege with all supply routes in and out of the city blocked by Nazi forces. Liza has learned from her mother to do whatever it takes to survive—even, now that Mama has died, hiding her death from authorities so as to keep using her precious ration cards. When Liza’s best friend, Aka, suggests trading “entertainment” for food from the secret police, Liza knows it’s a mistake. Then Aka disappears, and Liza will do anything to find her. Relatively short, fast-paced chapters drive the novel as Liza scrambles to survive and hunts for her friend. In a city rife with desperation, questions of morality exist alongside matters of survival as she confronts the ugly truths of the war and must decide what she is willing to give up, both for information about Aka and for food. With a body already ravaged by starvation, Liza becomes an unreliable narrator as she tries to cut through the fog of hunger and fatigue. Much of this suspenseful story is mired in the daily brutality of the siege as Liza tries to find her own moral compass and cling to hope where she can. An author’s note gives historical background and connects Scott’s interest in the subject to her childhood in the former USSR.

From the January/February 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.