ZERO By Anita M Hall

 

What happens when four women, of differing ages and backgrounds, agree to share their life-long struggles

with weight and body image?

 

When university researcher Nell gets together a group of women to do just that, the resultant stories

explore the uncomfortable truths of a generation of females raised within a ‘size zero’ culture.

 

We meet narrator Daisy, who has struggled with eating disorders throughout her life, becoming first

anorexic and then bulimic; exercise addict Zoe, so traumatised by an event she witnessed as a child that she

has refused to allow her body to reach maturity; over-eater Meg, who turned to food for comfort during an

abusive relationship; and researcher Nell herself, who has her own, less regular, body issues to battle.

 

As their individual tales unfold, and the relationships between the four evolve, we see how the women define themselves through their stories and the way they respresent themselves to the world. There are stories

within stories - including those we tell ourselves - and we learn the power of having our histories witnessed

and validated by others.

 

Living as we do in a society that proscribes and falsifies the female form - a full-time, full-on House of Mirrors -  

this is a book to which women of all ages can relate. It is also one that offers a message of hope to all who recognise themselves in the characters, for, ultimately, there is a way out; a way to see past those

distorted, fractured reflections, and to reclaim one's true, perfectly imperfect self.