Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “When I Return To You, I Will Be Unfed” as Want to Read:
When I Return To You, I Will Be Unfed
by
Semi-Finalist for the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Novella Competition
"When I Return To You, I Will Be Unfed is a poignant, gritty exploration of mental illness and one man's search for a safe haven. Bowen's unflinching prose grips the reader and he doesn't let go until the final, perfect beat of the narrative. This book may be short in length, but it will remain with the reader l ...more
"When I Return To You, I Will Be Unfed is a poignant, gritty exploration of mental illness and one man's search for a safe haven. Bowen's unflinching prose grips the reader and he doesn't let go until the final, perfect beat of the narrative. This book may be short in length, but it will remain with the reader l ...more
Paperback, 2nd
Published
by Burning River
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
When I Return To You, I Will Be Unfed,
please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
Christopher
Sent, Chris! Hope you enjoy it!
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
Showing 1-42

Start your review of When I Return To You, I Will Be Unfed

This book is like getting run down by an unassuming freight train. It's straightforward yet conveys that confusion and skewed reality, dulled in some places while overwhelmingly intense in others. Amazing to see it all happen in so short a space. It leaves you breathless and raw, yet smiling.
...more

Bowen's work is beautiful and mysterious. There is longing and fractured reality. The saddest mix.
"I think of college and miss it. I miss everything bright." (35)
Out of context, it sounds like everything I miss about college. The brightness, the potential. In context, it is much more: defining the self while within mental illness.
As Mendelsohn writes in their review, the book is memorable and unclear, but sings complexity.
The reader and writer weave: "She moves over me, takes control, and submit ...more
"I think of college and miss it. I miss everything bright." (35)
Out of context, it sounds like everything I miss about college. The brightness, the potential. In context, it is much more: defining the self while within mental illness.
As Mendelsohn writes in their review, the book is memorable and unclear, but sings complexity.
The reader and writer weave: "She moves over me, takes control, and submit ...more

This is a daring tale that explores a topic many have endeavored but few have rendered with such audacity and grace. Mental illness is hard to write about, even harder to endure. But Christopher Bowen lays it bare for us in a condensed form that is as much poem as story, as much novel as poem. You don’t encounter such a gem on a daily or even yearly basis, but when you do, it makes you grateful for a great number of things. This story made me give thanks, as a reader and as a human being who oft
...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Christopher Bowen is the author of the chapbook We Were Giants, the novella When I Return to You, I Will Be Unfed, and the non-fiction Debt. He was a semi-finalist in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Novella Competition and honorable mention in the 45th New Millennium Writing Awards in the non-fiction category. He blogs from Burning River.
News & Interviews
Care to travel to past times for some serious drama? Check out this season's biggest historical fiction novels and be transported to tales of...
79 likes · 22 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »