Piglet

A Novel

By: Lottie Hazell

Narrated by: Rebekah Hinds

New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2024

Long-listed, NPR Best Book of the Year, 2024

"Hinds’ depiction of Piglet’s frantic appetite is piercing, capturing her insatiable need for the lushly described food. This is a listen like slightly burnt caramel—sharp and dark, yet still luscious."—AudioFile (Earphones Award Winner)

An elegant, razor-sharp debut about women's ambitions and appetites—and the truth about having it all

Outside of a childhood nickname she can’t shake, Piglet’s rather pleased with how her life’s turned out. An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, she’s got lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit, whose rarefied family she actually, most of the time, likes, despite their upper-class eccentricities. One of the many, many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she’s always cooking.

But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they’re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly…hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work, and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can’t explain. Torn between a life she’s always wanted and the ravenousness that comes with not getting what she knows she deserves, Piglet is, by the day of her wedding, undone, but also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.

A stylish, uncommonly clever novel about the things we want and the things we think we want, Piglet is both an examination of women’s often complicated relationship with food and a celebration of the messes life sometimes makes for us.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.

©2024 Lottie Hazell (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Some seriously brilliant cringe. When Piglet wanders into an Indian restaurant by herself and orders every dish on the menu days before her wedding-dress fitting, it’s hard not to squirm, and harder still to avoid interrogating the reasons for one’s intense discomfort . . . Like the food that Piglet cooks, Hazell’s sentences are delicious. . . A novel that you will devour first and savor later.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Hazell debuts with the delicious narrative of a disastrous wedding.”—Publishers Weekly

“Ambitious prose Nora Ephron would be proud of. Hazell captures the subtle class divide in contemporary British life with precision—all while serving the reader a bacchanal of delicious food writing that will have you craving more.”—Marlowe Granados, author of Happy Hour

It was okaaay??

I don’t know, man, I thought she was gonna start eating ppl or something. Pretty good and I’d recommend, just a bit too literal for my taste

twists and turns of the plot

I enjoyed the details of all the sensory descriptions. This is a great quick read that kept my attention! I recommend it!

Revelation through Food

I love this book. The author’s knowledge of food and vivid descriptions intrigues the reader. The realization that relationships can mimic the glossy allure of “tv food”, but in reality, all is not what it seems hooks the reader.
Great read and highly recommend.

The relationship with food

The reader was great and the story had me leaning in to see what was going to happen next. I loved the food descriptions.

A Panic Attack of a Book

Although this book did include a lot of beautiful food imagery as I had hoped, it was also a prolonged panic attack, where my body was clenching through the very agonizing and drawn out decline of a relationship. I would have like less of the anxiety chapters and more of the self realization

Odd and disturbing

The reader has many questions, none of which will be answered! The main character is damaged and trying to create a new life in the eyes of others and herself. But she’s building it on an unstable foundation and with seemingly no ability to make sound decisions on her own behalf.

A neurodivergent sensory whirlwind

A woman trying to figure out what she wants out of life and allowing herself to experience personal and nonverbal pleasures in life.
No silly drama.

Luscious and real

Come for the food writing, stay for the character development. Well written and well read.

Interesting journey

The main character, Piglet, learns so much about herself. You are never quite sure exactly what is going on in her mind until later in the story. A very good listen!

The Wedding Dress

I wish they had made it clear what
Kit actually did. I know it was a betrayal
but I wish I knew more about what
Piglet really thought about it. I guess
she didn’t think. She stuffed everything
down until she left the wedding and
went home and she was satisfied!
Maybe I liked it more after the end.