Identity & Belonging

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

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The View From Lake Como

The View From Lake Como

Adriana Trigiani

Jess Capodimonte Baratta has spent much of her life putting everyone else first. Recently divorced, she retreats to her parents’ basement in Lake Como, New Jersey, where family obligations and Sunday dinners leave little room for her own ambitions. A talented draftswoman working in her uncle’s marble business, Jess has more potential than she realizes—but an unexpected family loss brings buried secrets to light and forces her to question everything she thought she knew about the people closest to her. Determined to reclaim her future, Jess travels to her ancestral home in Carrara, Italy, where the marble mountains of Tuscany and the vibrant streets of Milan offer the possibility of a fresh start. As she explores her family’s past and meets Angelo Strazza, an artist who works in gold, Jess begins to discover her own creative gifts and a new sense of belonging. Blending romance, family drama, and Italian-American heritage, this warm, spirited novel explores the courage it takes to reinvent yourself and build a life on your own terms.

The Letter Carrier

The Letter Carrier

Francesca Giannone

In June 1934, Anna arrives with her husband, Carlo, in the small southern Italian village of Lizzanello, in the sun-soaked region of Salento. An outsider from northern Italy, she stands apart from the village women: she reads unconventional books, refuses to follow traditional expectations, and believes women deserve the same rights as men. When the local post office begins hiring, Anna seizes the opportunity to become the village’s first female letter carrier—a decision that challenges deeply rooted social conventions. As she delivers letters carrying news of love, separation, longing, and loss, Anna gradually becomes an essential thread connecting the community. Yet beneath the village’s familiar rhythms lie forbidden desires, old resentments, and family secrets that threaten to change several lives forever. Inspired by the author’s own great-grandmother, this sweeping historical novel explores a woman’s determination to shape her own destiny in a world that expects her to conform.

The City

Valerian Pidmohylnyi

Stepan Radchenko arrives in Kyiv from the Ukrainian countryside with ambitions of studying economics and eventually returning home to help modernise rural life. But the capital soon becomes more than a place of education: it is a world of opportunity, temptation, and reinvention. As Stepan moves from the city’s outskirts into its cultural and literary circles, he pursues success as a writer while navigating a series of romantic relationships that shape his understanding of himself. Gradually, his original ideals give way to ambition, vanity, and a growing desire to conquer the city on his own terms. Kyiv becomes both the setting for his transformation and a force that challenges his sense of belonging. First published in 1928, The City is considered a landmark of modern Ukrainian literature. Combining psychological realism with philosophical reflection, Pidmohylnyi examines urbanisation, social mobility, desire, and the tension between rural origins and modern identity. Stepan’s journey raises a timeless question: when we reinvent ourselves to achieve success, what parts of our original selves do we leave behind?

Death of the Author

Death of the Author

Death of the Author follows Zelu, a Nigerian American writer who faces professional setbacks and personal challenges after losing her academic job. Unable to find success with the literary fiction she has been writing, she turns to science fiction and creates Rustic, a novel set in a distant future where robots struggle to understand humanity after a global catastrophe. The book unexpectedly becomes a bestseller, transforming Zelu’s life while raising difficult questions about authorship, recognition, and the relationship between a writer and her work. As Zelu navigates newfound fame, family tensions, and questions about her physical disability, her fictional world unfolds alongside her own story. The novel moves between these narratives, exploring how stories shape our understanding of humanity and whose voices are permitted to imagine the future. Blending speculative fiction, literary metafiction, and social commentary, Okorafor examines disability, technology, race, creativity, and the meaning of storytelling. The novel challenges conventional ideas about literary value and asks who has the authority to tell stories—and what happens when those stories take on a life of their own.

The Lion Women of Tehran

The Lion Women of Tehran

Set in Tehran across three transformative decades, The Lion Women of Tehran follows Ellie and Homa, two girls from different social backgrounds who form a close friendship in the 1950s. After her father’s death, Ellie moves with her mother to a poorer neighbourhood, where she meets Homa, an outspoken and ambitious girl who dreams of becoming a judge and fighting for women’s rights. The girls share their hopes for the future, but changing circumstances eventually separate them. When they reunite years later, their friendship is tested by political upheaval, personal ambition, and a devastating betrayal. Against the backdrop of Iran’s changing political landscape, Kamali explores female friendship, social inequality, and the consequences of choices made in moments of fear and uncertainty. The novel examines how childhood relationships shape adult identities and how forgiveness can become a path towards understanding and redemption.

Six days in Bombay

Six days in Bombay

Set in Bombay in 1937, Six Days in Bombay follows Sona, a young Indian woman whose encounter with an enigmatic French artist draws her into a world of art, ambition, and personal transformation. Against the vibrant backdrop of colonial-era India, Sona navigates the social expectations surrounding women while discovering new possibilities for her own future. Her experiences over six pivotal days challenge her understanding of herself, her relationships, and the boundaries that society has established for her. As the story unfolds, art becomes a means of exploring both individual expression and the tensions between tradition and change. Joshi combines historical atmosphere with an intimate portrait of a woman confronting the possibilities of a different life, examining how brief encounters and unexpected experiences can alter the course of a person’s identity and ambitions.

One, None, and a Hundred Grand

One, None, and a Hundred Grand

Luigi Pirandello

In One, None, and a Hundred Grand, Vitangelo Moscarda discovers that his wife sees his nose as slightly crooked, a detail he has never noticed himself. This seemingly trivial observation triggers an existential crisis as he realizes that everyone perceives him differently, creating countless versions of his identity. As he attempts to escape these conflicting images, he begins to question the nature of selfhood, reality, and social identity. Through absurdity and philosophical reflection, Pirandello explores the instability of personal identity and the impossibility of truly knowing oneself through the eyes of others.

Diaspora-ish: Notes on Identities, Unbelonging, & Solidarities

Diaspora-ish: Notes on Identities, Unbelonging, & Solidarities

What does it mean to belong when your identity crosses borders, cultures, and histories? Drawing on her own journey from Tanzania to Botswana and the United States, Gayatri Sethi challenges conventional ideas about nationality, race, ethnicity, and belonging. Blending personal reflections, poetry, academic insights, and interactive exercises, she explores how colonialism, racism, immigration, and inherited cultural expectations shape the ways people understand themselves and others. Moving beyond individual identity, Sethi asks how people from different backgrounds can build meaningful solidarities without erasing their differences. Thought-provoking and deeply personal, this book invites readers to question the boundaries that divide us and imagine a more inclusive vision of collective liberation.

Botswana Tanzania United States 2026

Farewell Tangier

Farewell Tangier

Salma El Moumni

Growing up in Tangier, Alia is constantly subjected to the unwanted attention of men who scrutinize her body, follow her, and invade her space. Desperate to understand the gaze that makes her feel both exposed and ashamed, she begins taking intimate photographs of herself in the privacy of her bedroom. When the images appear online without her consent, Alia faces the threat of punishment and is forced to flee to Lyon, France. But leaving Morocco cannot erase the shame, fear, and cultural expectations she carries with her. Intimate and unsettling, this powerful novel examines the policing of women’s bodies, sexual identity, and the complicated search for freedom between two cultures.

Brown Girls, Grown Up

Brown Girls, Grown Up

What happens when you grow up between cultures, build a life of your own, and still struggle to feel that you belong? In this intimate, witty collection of stories, Sima Qadeer explores the lives of South Asian women navigating marriage, motherhood, sexuality, faith, and the expectations of family and society. From a middle-aged woman who discovers the freedom of an unexpected friendship to a mother seeking to reconnect her children with their Muslim heritage, these characters confront the compromises they have made and the selves they have kept hidden. Tender, irreverent, and sharply observant, the collection explores the lifelong journey toward self-acceptance and the courage to belong without abandoning who you are.

Black Bag

What happens when an unemployed actor agrees to spend his university lectures zipped inside an oversized black leather bag? Hired by Professor Dr. Blend for an unusual psychological experiment, the nameless protagonist soon discovers that his strange new role has consequences far beyond the classroom. As a professor develops an unexpected fascination with the person hidden inside the bag and his childhood friend sees an opportunity to turn the experiment into a business, anonymity becomes both a refuge and a trap. Surreal, absurdly funny, and unexpectedly tender, Black Bag is a satirical campus novel exploring masculinity, identity, loneliness, and the struggle to connect in a world obsessed with visibility and self-promotion.

United Kingdom 2026

You Exist Too Much

You Exist Too Much

Caught between her Palestinian heritage, her queer identity, and an overwhelming hunger for love, an unnamed young woman struggles to find somewhere she truly belongs. When a painful breakup sends her spiralling, she enters an unconventional treatment centre for what is described as love addiction. Through fragmented memories spanning Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and the United States, she confronts her complicated relationship with her mother, the shame surrounding her sexuality, and the emotional wounds shaping her destructive romantic patterns. Intimate, provocative, and darkly funny, this novel explores the fine line between desire and obsession—and the difficult journey toward accepting yourself when you feel you are always too much for the world.

Palestine United States 2026

About this theme

Books: 196
Countries: 72

Countries with this theme

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Congo, Democratic Republic

Dominican Republic

North Macedonia