The Hunger Between Us

October 3, 2022
Scott’s high-stakes debut, set in summer 1942 during the siege of Leningrad, follows strong-willed 17-year-old Liza, desperate to survive amid food scarcity. Starvation is considered “the deadliest of soldiers” in Leningrad, which has had its supplies cut off by Axis forces, and if Liza wants to continue receiving her recently deceased mother’s ration cards, she must bury her in secret. Hoping to help, Liza’s best friend Aka reveals she’s found a way to secure more food. The NKVD, the Soviet secret police, is purportedly giving bread to girls in exchange for sexual favors; after Aka disappears, Liza, certain she’s somewhere inside the NKVD base, sets off to find her. During her search, she becomes entangled with Maksim, an officer of the secret police, and Luka, a musician and former classmate forced to live in the tunnels underneath the city. While Liza is willing to steal whatever she can to survive, she struggles to navigate her community’s increasingly volatile response to the food shortage, including black market dealings and rumored cannibalism. Scott combines rich historical details, propulsive pacing, and a bleak, realistically wrought landscape to illuminate this dark chapter in history while raising moral questions about the lengths to which people will go to stay alive. Ages 12–up. Agent: Melissa Danaczko, Stuart Krichevsky Literary.