Since the age of fourteen, Carl Rittenhaur has blamed himself for the accidental deaths of his parents. Now a thirty-year-old middle school art teacher, Carl’s in line to inherit the family farm from his grandfather, but this legacy only stirs up painful memories of his parents’ deaths.
Carl’s life gets a surprising jolt when Miriam Boyd, his ex-fiancee who had once pulled him from depression and later abandoned him at the altar, returns to town with her two-year-old daughter in tow. She’s fighting a losing custody battle with the girl’s father, a man she believes is abusing her daughter. Carl soon finds himself tangled in an old romance, a corrupt family court system, and an eventual cross-country trek as he and Miriam run with the child under an Amber Alert. As they make their journey, Carl must find where his true hunger lies, either for his birthright and all its memories, or for this new family that may be his salvation. The Hunger Artist examines one man’s struggle with choice, the search for family, and the winding path to redemption.
The book stands at 105,000 words (35 chapters).