Awards
Winner of the 1992 Man Booker Prize for Fiction
Synopses & Reviews
Sacred Hunger is a stunning and engrossing exploration of power, domination, and greed. Filled with the "sacred hunger" to expand its empire and its profits, England entered full into the slave trade and spread the trade throughout its colonies. In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny. Joining together, the sailors and the slaves set up a secret, utopian society in the wilderness of Florida, only to await the vengeance of the single-minded, young Kemp.
Review
"Wonderful and heartbreaking....It is a book of grace and meditative elegance, and of great moral seriousness." New York Times Book Review
Review
"Utterly magnificent....By its last page, you will be close to weeping." Washington Post
Review
"This brilliantly suspenseful period piece about the slave trade in the 18th century is also a meditation on how avarice dehumanizes the oppressor as well as the oppressed" Chicago Tribune
Review
"Possibly the best novel I've read in the last decade." David Halberstam
Review
"[V]ividly realistic...As intricate as it is immense, this masterwork rewards every turn of its 640 pages." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[T]his is a masterful effort that delivers an important message. Highly recommended..." Library Journal
Review
"[A] riveting, outstanding addition to an already impressive oeuvre." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Sacred Hunger is a stunning and engrossing exploration of power, domination, and greed. Filled with the "sacred hunger" to expand its empire and its profits, England entered full into the slave trade and spread the trade throughout its colonies. In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny. Joining together, the sailors and the slaves set up a secret, utopian society in the wilderness of Florida, only to await the vengeance of the single-minded, young Kemp.
Synopsis
Wonderful and heartbreaking....It is a book of grace and meditative elegance, and of great moral seriousness.Utterly magnificent....By its last page, you will be close to weeping.This brilliantly suspenseful period piece about the slave trade in the 18th century is also a meditation on how avarice dehumanizes the oppressor as well as the oppressed.
Synopsis
Winner of the 1992 Booker Prize for Fiction: "Possibly the best novel I've read in the last decade."--David Halberstam
About the Author
Barry Unsworth is the author of the Booker Prize-winning Sacred Hunger, the Booker-nominated Morality Play, and many other novels.