Identity & Belonging

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

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An Unlasting Home

An Unlasting Home

How do you belong to a country you have spent your life wanting to leave? In Kuwait, philosophy professor Sara faces the threat of execution after being accused of blasphemy for teaching Nietzsche. As she awaits trial, she revisits the lives of the women who shaped her: two grandmothers and two mothers whose stories stretch across Kuwait, Iraq, India, Lebanon, and the United States. Spanning nearly a century of upheaval, migration, and changing social expectations, this sweeping family saga explores the complicated ties between women, their homeland, and the histories they inherit. Can Sara find a place for herself in a world where home can be both a refuge and a prison?

Temple Folk

Across generations of Black Muslim life in America, ten interconnected worlds of faith, family, and belonging unfold. A daughter haunted by her father’s ghost struggles to reconcile his legacy with the truth; a mother caring for her disabled son revisits a life-altering experience; and a federal agent spying on a prominent member of the Nation of Islam confronts the contradictions of his own life. Set against the complex social and spiritual landscape of Black Muslim communities, these stories explore the tension between religious conviction and human imperfection, tradition and independence, and the desire to belong and the need to question. With compassion, subtle humour, and remarkable insight, Temple Folk offers an intimate portrait of people navigating the distance between who they believe they should be and who they really are.

United States 2023

My Dreadful Body

My Dreadful Body

Egana Djabbarova

In My Dreadful Body, Egana Djabbarova explores what it means to grow up as a woman in a traditional Azerbaijani family in Russia, where a woman’s body is shaped by cultural expectations, religious beliefs, and the prospect of marriage. As the narrator develops a mysterious neurological condition that causes pain, involuntary movements, and speech difficulties, her body becomes both a source of suffering and a lens through which she examines her identity. Organised into chapters devoted to different body parts, the novel weaves together intimate memories, family traditions, and reflections on gender, illness, and belonging. The narrator confronts the rules imposed on women across generations, as well as the cultural tensions of living between Azerbaijani and Russian identities. Lyrical and deeply personal, this debut novel explores how physical vulnerability can challenge social expectations and open a path towards self-determination.

The Great Reclamation

The Great Reclamation

Set against the dramatic transformation of twentieth-century Singapore, The Great Reclamation follows Lee Ah Boon, a gentle boy growing up in a coastal fishing village during the final years of British colonial rule. More interested in playing with his childhood companion, Siok Mei, than in fishing, Boon discovers he possesses an extraordinary ability: he can locate mysterious, shifting islands rich with fish that no one else can find. His discovery gives him a newfound purpose within his community and deepens his connection to Siok Mei. But history soon disrupts their sheltered world. The Japanese occupation during the Second World War, the rise of political resistance, and Singapore’s journey towards independence bring profound changes to the village. As the government pursues ambitious land reclamation projects in the name of progress, Boon and Siok Mei find themselves on opposing sides of an increasingly divided society. Blending historical fiction, magical realism, and an intimate love story, Heng’s novel explores the costs of modernisation, the legacies of colonialism, and the tension between personal loyalty and collective progress. Through Boon’s journey, the novel asks what it means to call a place home when the land itself—and the society built upon it—is constantly changing.

The Unfortunates

The Unfortunates

The Unfortunates is a darkly humorous and experimental debut novel about Sahara Kesandu Nwadike, a queer, half-Nigerian Black college student struggling to survive at an elite American university. Battling depression, academic pressure, and feelings of inadequacy, Sahara becomes increasingly disturbed by the mysterious disappearance and deaths of Black students on campus. Determined to expose the institution’s failures, she transforms her experiences into an unconventional honors thesis addressed to the university committee. Blending fiction with elements of a thesis, personal essays, playlists, emails, and visual collages, J. K. Chukwu creates an intimate portrait of a young woman confronting racism, institutional hypocrisy, and mental health struggles. Sahara’s sharp, irreverent voice combines anger with humor as she searches for meaning and connection in an environment that repeatedly marginalizes her. The novel examines the psychological cost of systemic inequality while exploring the complexities of identity, belonging, and resistance.

United States 2023

How To Say Babylon

How To Say Babylon

Safiya Sinclair

How to Say Babylon is a memoir by Jamaican poet Safiya Sinclair about growing up in a strict Rastafari household, where religious beliefs shaped nearly every aspect of family life. Her father, a devoted Rastafari, raises his children according to rigid interpretations of the faith, imposing strict rules on their behaviour, education, appearance, and relationships with the outside world. For Sinclair, these restrictions become particularly difficult as she grows older and begins to question the expectations placed on women. Books and poetry gradually offer her a way to explore ideas beyond the boundaries of her upbringing. Through education and writing, she discovers the language to challenge the beliefs that have defined her childhood and to develop an independent sense of self. Yet her journey toward freedom is complicated by love for her family and the cultural traditions she does not wish simply to reject. Written in lyrical prose, the memoir explores religion, patriarchy, colonial history, and the transformative power of literature. It is a deeply personal account of finding one’s voice while negotiating the complex relationship between family, cultural inheritance, and individual freedom.

Everything Is Not Enough

Everything Is Not Enough

Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Everything Is Not Enough follows three Black women navigating ambition, relationships, and belonging in contemporary Stockholm. Kemi Adeyemi, a Nigerian-born marketing executive, has built a successful career but struggles with the emotional costs of her choices. Brittany-Rae Johnson, an American socialite, finds that wealth and privilege cannot protect her from personal turmoil. Meanwhile, Yasmiin Abdullahi, a Somali-Swedish entrepreneur, faces the challenges of balancing her cultural heritage with her professional ambitions and personal desires. As their lives intersect, the women confront the pressures of social expectations, the complexities of interracial relationships, and the inequalities that shape their experiences. Each must question what success means and whether the lives they have worked so hard to build truly fulfil them. Through interconnected stories of love, friendship, ambition, and self-discovery, Åkerström explores race, class, migration, and the search for belonging. The novel examines the tension between outward success and inner fulfilment, asking whether achieving everything society values is enough to create a meaningful life.

Vanishing Maps

Cristina García

Vanishing Maps returns to the García family, whose history of exile, migration, and political upheaval was introduced in Dreaming in Cuban. Moving between Cuba and the United States, the novel follows members of a family whose lives have been shaped by displacement, fractured relationships, and the complicated legacy of revolution. As the characters navigate different generations and cultural environments, they confront the question of what it means to belong to a country that may exist more vividly in memory than in everyday life. García explores the ways family histories are inherited, reinterpreted, and sometimes deliberately forgotten. Blending personal drama with the wider history of the Cuban diaspora, the novel examines how migration reshapes identity and how the search for home can continue long after a person has physically left it.

Free

Free is Lea Ypi’s memoir of growing up in Albania during the final years of communist rule and the turbulent transition that followed. As a child, Ypi believes that her country represents a just and orderly society, interpreting its rules through the limited understanding of childhood. When the communist regime collapses, she begins to discover that the official stories she learned at school concealed a far more complicated reality. Her family history also challenges her assumptions about freedom, revealing how political ideologies and historical circumstances shaped the lives of previous generations. Moving between childhood memories and adult reflection, Ypi examines the meaning of liberty, the relationship between individual choices and political systems, and the difficulty of understanding the past without simplifying it. The memoir offers a nuanced exploration of how people reconstruct their identities when the foundations of their beliefs suddenly disappear.

Perfumist of Paris

Perfumist of Paris

The Perfumist of Paris follows Radha, the younger sister introduced in The Henna Artist, as she builds a career in the world of perfumery in 1970s Paris. Having developed her talent for creating fragrances, Radha works to establish herself professionally while navigating marriage, motherhood, and the expectations placed upon her as an Indian woman living abroad. Her ambition to become an accomplished perfumer requires her to make difficult choices about the balance between her professional aspirations and her responsibilities to her family. As she encounters new opportunities and challenges, Radha must confront questions about independence, belonging, and the kind of future she wants to create. Joshi explores the relationship between creativity and self-expression, using the evocative world of perfume to examine memory, cultural heritage, and the complex process of developing an identity that embraces both personal ambition and family ties.

By the Sea

Abdulrazak Gurnah

By the Sea follows Saleh Omar, an elderly man from Zanzibar who arrives in England seeking asylum, carrying little more than a small suitcase and a box of fragrant incense. Unable or unwilling to explain his past fully, he becomes entangled in a complex history of family conflict, political upheaval, and personal betrayal. His story gradually intersects with that of Latif Mahmud, another Tanzanian exile whose family history is closely connected to Saleh’s own. As the two men confront their shared past, the novel explores displacement, memory, and the uncertain meaning of belonging. Through their conflicting recollections, Gurnah reveals how personal narratives are shaped by loss and resentment, while examining the emotional and cultural challenges faced by those forced to rebuild their lives far from home.

Someone Like Her

Someone Like Her

Someone Like Her explores the lives of women navigating the social expectations, gender inequalities, and cultural pressures of contemporary Pakistan. Through interconnected personal experiences, Awais Khan examines how family honour, class divisions, and traditional ideas about femininity shape women’s choices and relationships. The characters struggle to reconcile their private desires with the demands placed upon them by their families and communities, often confronting difficult decisions about love, independence, and their futures. Set against the contrasting worlds of privilege and vulnerability, the novel examines the unequal power structures that influence women’s lives and the consequences of challenging established conventions. Khan’s storytelling highlights the emotional complexity behind outward appearances, revealing the compromises people make to protect themselves and those they love. At its heart, Someone Like Her considers what it means for a woman to claim her own identity in a society that often defines her worth through her relationships, reputation, and conformity to expectations.

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About this theme

Books: 196
Countries: 72

Countries with this theme

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Congo, Democratic Republic

Dominican Republic

North Macedonia