The Thick and the Lean

In Lambda Award finalist Chana PorterΓÇÖs highly anticipated new novel,an aspiring chefa cyberthiefand a kitchen maid each break free of a society that wants to constrain them. In the quaint religious town of Seagateabstaining from food brings one closer to God. But Beatrice Bolano is hungry. She craves the forbidden: butterflamb├⌐marzipan. As Seagate takes increasingly extreme measures to regulate every calorie its citizens consumeBeatrice must make a choice: give up her secret passion for cooking or leave the only community she has known. ElsewhereReiko Rimando has left her modest roots for a college tech scholarship in the big city. A flawless studentshe is set up for success…until her school pulls her fundingleaving her to face either a mountain of debt or a humiliating return home. But Reiko is done being at the mercy of the system. She forges a third pathΓÇöoutside of the law. With the guidance of a mysterious cookbook written by a kitchen maid centuries agoBeatrice and Reiko each grasp for a life of freedomΓÇösomething more easily imagined than achieved in a world dominated by catastrophic corporate greed. A startling fable of the entwined perils of capitalismbody politicsand the stigmas women face for appetites of every kindChana PorterΓÇÖs profound new novel explores the reclamation of pleasure as a revolutionary act.