Milk Fed

A Novel

By: Melissa Broder

Narrated by: Melissa Broder

Named a Best Book of the Year by Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Time, Esquire, BookPage, and more

This darkly hilarious and “delicious new novel that ravishes with sex and food” (The Boston Globe) from the acclaimed author of The Pisces and So Sad Today is a “precise blend of desire, discomfort, spirituality, and existential ache” (BuzzFeed).

Rachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, through obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting—until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting.

Rachel soon meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam—by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family—and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey.

“A ruthless, laugh-out-loud examination of life under the tyranny of diet culture” (Glamour), this novel blends humor and dark comedy with sharp insights into contemporary relationships. Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts. Milk Fed is “riotously funny and perfectly profane” (Refinery 29) from “a wild, wicked mind” (Los Angeles Times). Fans of coming-of-age fiction and literary fiction alike will find this novel filled with emotional depth and wit.

Graphic and beautiful

This novel is graphic in it’s descriptiveness, unflinchingly honest, and still somehow very soft. Rachel is a true anti hero who’s journey to self love and self tolerance I was immediately and deeply invested in

Super unique book perfect for audible

This book was an incredible first person story of a woman whose thoughts are too taboo for most. This is my new favorite book. The narration by the author was the cherry on top. The northeast accent especially made perfect sense. 10/10

So real.

The POV character has so many unkind, perverse, and strange thoughts. It was so challenging and uncomfortable to be in her brain but I truly was immersed. I think about this often.

kept me wanting more

This book spoke to me. It touched on many topics including eating disorders, maternal love, sex, and love. I didn't love the ending but I would still 100% recommend.

I'm fed.

I liked how realistic the descriptions were on woman's bodies/smells/tastes, the personal struggles of ( the author herself I'm assuming) and the explanations of the religious undertones in this book. Definatlely didn't sugarcoat which I appreciate. There was so very personal things that were discussed in this book so kudos to the author for being so transparent. Overall great book. Kept me listening atleast.