The Hunger Angel

I read The Hunger Angel by Herta Muller.  I judged the book by it's cover. I saw the gold circle indicating a Nobel prize winner for literature and I wanted to read it.  So I read this book which is the English translation of a Romanian novel.  It was written by Herta Muller.  And although the book is about life in a prison camp in Russia, Herta herself has never been a political prisoner.  But her mother was sent to a prison camp and so was her good friend, a poet.  From reading her book a reader can tell she knew what it was like to be in a prison camp.  She describes the hard work shoveling coal, making cement blocks, and moving tons of sand.  She describes the hunger as an angel.  The hunger angel is around all the time making itself known.  The hunger angel can take life away but also make a person stronger.  And it isn't until the hunger angel i s gone that you realize how much it has taken from you.  If you are really and truly hungry, you don't care about your looks or your clothes or your hygiene or the lice that live in your hair, your clothes, and in your pubic hair.  The subject matter was difficult but I enjoyed this book very much.