Winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Award for First Novel and the Balcones Fiction Prize
“Achingly beautiful... Big Girl triumphs as a love letter to the Black girls who are forced to enter womanhood too early — and to a version of Harlem that no longer exists." - New York Times Book Review
“Sullivan charms in her stunning debut novel about a Black girl’s coming-of-age... This is a treasure.” - Starred Review, Publisher’s Weekly
“An affecting and memorable debut.” - Starred Review, Booklist
“A lyrical and important coming of age novel.” - Kirkus Reviews
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
VCU Cabell First Novelist Award Shortlist
Center for Fiction First Novel Award Shortlist Finalist
Booksparks Summer Reading Challenge Pick
Exquisitely compassionate and witty, Big Girl traces the intergenerational hungers and desires of Black womanhood, as told through the unforgettable voice of Malaya Clondon.
In her highly anticipated debut novel, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan explores the perils―and undeniable beauty―of insatiable longing.
Growing up in a rapidly changing Harlem, eight-year-old Malaya hates when her mother drags her to Weight Watchers meetings; she’d rather paint alone in her bedroom or enjoy forbidden street foods with her father. For Malaya, the pressures of her predominantly white Upper East Side prep school are relentless, as are the expectations passed down from her painfully proper mother and sharp-tongued grandmother. As she comes of age in the 1990s, she finds solace in the music of Biggie Smalls and Aaliyah, but her weight continues to climb―until a family tragedy forces her to face the source of her hunger, ultimately shattering her inherited stigmas surrounding women’s bodies, and embracing her own desire. Written with vibrant lyricism shot through with tenderness, Big Girl announces Sullivan as an urgent and vital voice in contemporary fiction.
Praise for Big Girl
New York Times • Editors’ Choice
Publisher’s Weekly & Booklist • Starred Reviews
TIME • Best Books of the Month
Electric Literature • Best Books of 2022
Booklist Editors’ Choice • Best Adult Books of 2022
Essence • 18 New Books We Can’t Wait To Read This Summer
The Root • 9 Books by Black Authors We Can’t Wait to Read This July
People Magazine • New in Paperback Feature
Vulture • Most Anticipated Books of 2022
Goodreads • Hot and Fresh: 60 Highly Anticipated Debut Novels
Ms. Magazine • Most Anticipated Reads for the Rest of Us 2022
SheReads.com • Best Books Coming in Summer 2022
“There are three books on earth that I would give anything to be able to write and reread until the sun burns us up. Big Girl is one of those books. The sound, the expansiveness of the whispers, the critical, brilliant, sometimes bruising, beautiful Black girlness explored in this novel is literally second to none…I know I have just read and reread a new American classic that we as a culture and country desperately need. Believe that.”
—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
“Mecca Jamilah Sullivan gives voice to girls and women with unruly bodies who dare to take up space in a world that shames them for being hungry for more. Alive with delicious prose and the cacophony of '90s Harlem, Big Girl gifts us a heroine carrying the weight of worn-out ideas who dares to defy the compulsion to shrink, and in turn teaches us to pursue our fullest, most desirous selves without shame. Big Girl is a tender and sumptuous offering of beauty.”
—Janet Mock, author of Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty
“Mecca Jamilah Sullivan has given us a gift as big, beautiful and complicated as living itself, filled with everyday people who in her gifted hands, show us the love and struggle of what it means to be inside bodies that don’t always fit with the outside world. I found myself cheering for Percy, Nyela, the Harlem streets and of course, for Malaya. Lovely.”
—Jacqueline Woodson, author of Red at the Bone
“What I love most about this book is the depth of each character. I'll never forget Malaya Clondon, but the family that surrounds her is just as complex and memorable. This is a beautiful, profound, and moving novel that I'll be thinking about for a very long time.”
—Liz Moore, author of Long Bright River and Heft
“I ate this up in one greedy, joyous gulp. I fell in love with Maya Clondon from the very first page. This book is hilariously funny and quietly devastating—a compelling narrative about what it means to define ourselves and make space for our bodies as women.”
—Nicole Dennis-Benn, award winning author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun
“Mecca Jamilah Sullivan's Big Girl is a touching meditation on youth. Malaya, our protagonist, is remarkable as she carries forth growing into herself despite the many obstacles thrown her way. I was immersed in this evocative novel. Even as she poignantly depicts the turmoil in Malaya's life, Sullivan reminds us that there is room to laugh, for the world is made up of beautiful, sometimes inappropriate, often hilarious folks! Malaya's story will stay with you long after the novel is through.”
—Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under the Udala Trees
“Mecca Jamilah Sullivan has delivered a singular coming of age story. A book about the vulnerabilities of living in the body of a young Black girl, Sullivan has created a portrait of young adulthood as quietly revolutionary as Gwendolyn Brooks' Maud Martha or Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John. Resetting the conversation about girlhood, desire, bodies and appetites, this book is a revelation for those who care about the rich, varied lives of Black youth.”
—Kaitlyn Greenidge, Author of Libertie