![]() ![]() ![]() (The phenomenon divides along gender lines: while women withdrew into bedrooms that became shrines, their male equivalents, the “hunger artists” immortalised in Kafka’s story, presented starvation as a performative feat of endurance in travelling fairs, a trend culminating in illusionist David Blaine’s 44-day fast in a glass box dangled over the Thames.) Whether it was anorexia, religious mania or entrepreneurial spirit that was driving them, they drew donations from curious visitors and fascination from doctors, scientists and priests, keen to discover if they could really be living on air, light or the love of God. ![]() Her new book is based on the many cases of “fasting girls” reported across the world from the 16th to the 20th centuries: women and girls, often prepubescent, who claimed to live without food for months or even years. ![]()
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