Empty

“Her tale of compulsion and healing is candid and powerful.”—People

“Susan Burton’s Empty is a smart, brave gift to the world. She pulls back the curtain on an ailment all too many suffer with and often die from. Bravo!”—Mary Karr, author of The Art of Memoir and The Liars’ Club

“Burton’s memoir is valuable because she goes beyond simply confessing her shame; she rakes herself over the coals, and in doing so she models how anger can be used to clarify a story. Her anger gives the book its considerable power, its substantial grace and even, in the end, its meaning. Her fury is like a flashing light in a cave, or a portal. The force of it makes us not just appreciate but actually feel the force that drove her to commit her actions in the first place. The result is a book that wields a fearsome intimacy.”—Claire Dederer, The New York Times

“Residing inside all of us is a secret so fraught that it becomes unspeakable, and for Susan Burton, that secret was food: How it controlled her and how she tried to control it. How it haunted and comforted, becoming at turns her fiercest adversary and comforting companion. Empty is a tour de force of both vulnerability and strength, a memoir so unflinching and brave that it forces us to peer into our own dark places with newfound honesty and compassion. By giving voice to her shame, Burton teaches herself—and the rest of us—how to find power and freedom in the telling.”—Lori Gottlieb, author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

“Susan Burton’s Empty is by turns touching, frightening, fiercely candid, and beautifully written.  In this story of a teenager’s furtive eating disorders, Burton has sidestepped the clichés, and captured the enigma of attempting to sate, by gluttony and starvation, our human vulnerabilities.”—Jill Ciment, author of The Body in Question
 
“Susan Burton’s brave and candid book reveals the inner landscape of an adolescent girl, and the way the mind can be hypnotized by the idea of the body. Beautifully written, touching and intimate, Empty speaks to a secret shared by many American women.”—Roxana Robinson, author of Dawson’s Fall