Identity & Belonging

Explorations of self, belonging, and what it means to find your place.

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Good Girl

In Berlin’s underground techno scene, nineteen-year-old Nila is searching for freedom, belonging, and a voice of her own. Born in Germany to Afghan refugee parents, she moves between her family’s expectations and the city’s intoxicating nightlife, trying to escape the weight of her past and imagine a different future. When she meets Marlowe, an older American writer whose fading literary fame opens the door to a world of artistic possibility, Nila becomes drawn into a relationship that challenges her independence. Meanwhile, beneath Berlin’s cosmopolitan surface, racism and unresolved historical tensions threaten the fragile worlds she inhabits. Sensual, restless, and deeply perceptive, Good Girl explores the contradictions of growing up between cultures—and the messy, liberating struggle to decide who you want to become.

Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf follows Harry Haller, a middle-aged intellectual who feels profoundly alienated from bourgeois society and believes himself divided between two opposing natures: the civilised human being and the solitary wolf. Disillusioned with conventional life, Harry becomes increasingly withdrawn and struggles with thoughts of despair. His encounter with Hermine, a lively and unconventional woman, introduces him to new experiences, including music, dancing, and forms of pleasure he has long rejected. Through these encounters, he begins to question his rigid understanding of identity and the assumption that human beings can be divided into simple opposing parts. Hesse blends psychological exploration with surreal and philosophical episodes to examine loneliness, social conformity, and the possibility of personal transformation. The novel asks whether people can learn to embrace the contradictions within themselves rather than remain imprisoned by a fixed image of who they are.

About this theme

Books: 2
Countries: 72

Countries with this theme

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Congo, Democratic Republic

Dominican Republic

North Macedonia