Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweetbitter | 2016 | Stephanie Danler | Buy |
Sweetbitter, published in 2016, is Stephanie Danler’s debut novel and her only fiction title to date. The book follows Tess, a twenty-something who moves to New York and gets hired at a high-end restaurant. Through her education in food, wine, and the social dynamics of the service industry, the novel explores appetite in every sense of the word.
The writing is rich with sensory detail, particularly around food and taste, and Danler draws on her own years working in New York restaurants to ground the story in specifics. The novel was a commercial success and attracted attention for its frank treatment of desire, addiction, and the particular intensity of restaurant culture.