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Supper Club
Supper Club
Dec 26, 2025 3:46 AM

Author:Lara Williams

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

Reviews

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

—— Stylist

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

—— Times Literary Supplement

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

—— The New York Times

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

—— Metro

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'

—— Marian Keyes

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

—— Guardian

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

—— Bustle

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

—— Refinery29

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

—— Daily Mail

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

—— Lit Hub

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

—— Pure Wow

[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

—— Kirkus (Starred Review)

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

—— Read It Forward

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

—— New York Magazine

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

—— Evening Standard

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

—— Sunday Mirror

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

—— Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)

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

—— Library Journal

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

—— Time (Summer Reading Highlights)

A bacchanalian homage to women's rage and female friendship

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

You'll want to feast on this book

—— Cosmopolitan

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

—— Women’s Review of Books

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

—— Mail on Sunday

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

—— i

Bold, wild and witty

—— The Sunday Express

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

—— TIME Magazine

A meditation on life, death and the stories told about both.

—— UK Press Syndication

The fiction about fiction that takes the breath away… Quichotte expertly does it again.

—— Michael Wood , London Review of Books

Funny and touching and sad and oddly vulnerable, rather like its eponymous hero… [Quichotte is] compelling.

—— Lucasta Miller , Spectator

Rushdie is a master storyteller who weaves his fictions and characters into such agreeable tapestries.

—— Sarah Hayes , Tablet

The novel's dazzling virtuosity and cascade of cultural references culminate in a final moving moment of hope

—— Jane Shilling , Daily Mail
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