Afterword Summary and Analysis

In her Afterword, Marya describes the difficulty of writing her story. She feels it is difficult to write her story since some words, such as hunger and cold, have different connotations for her than other people. She writes that she feels there should be an ending to the story; however, she still deals with the loose ends of her eating disorder on a daily basis. These loose ends, she writes, are the effects the disease had on her body. Her immune system does not work right, her reproductive system shut down, and her hair is prematurely grey. Marya writes she still has tendencies to "forget" to eat, or eat in a minimalist fashion. She also sometimes wakes from nightmares of being hungry.

Although at one point, Marya is given only one week to live, she has surpassed that expectation by four...