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.

Liquid

A brilliant Iranian-Indian American scholar has a PhD from UCLA, an underwhelming academic career, and a growing fear that she has failed to achieve the comfortable life her immigrant parents worked so hard to build. When her best friend jokingly suggests she marry rich, she takes the idea seriously, embarking on a summer of one hundred dates with wealthy Angelenos. Armed with spreadsheets and intellectual confidence, she approaches romance as another problem to solve. But when a family emergency takes her to Tehran, an unexpected queer attraction challenges her carefully constructed plans and forces her to reconsider what she wants from love, family, and her future. Witty, provocative, and deeply perceptive, Liquid explores the contradictions of ambition, the pressures of cultural expectations, and the search for belonging between different worlds. With sharp humour and emotional honesty, it turns the familiar romantic comedy into a thoughtful examination of identity, desire, and the lives we imagine for ourselves.

United States 2025

Salutation Road

Salutation Road

Twenty-three-year-old Sirad Ali feels trapped between the life she has inherited and the future she dreams of. Living in South London, she struggles to support her mother and younger brother while carrying the wound of her father’s abandonment. But one ordinary morning, her commute takes an extraordinary turn: she finds herself transported to an alternate version of Mogadishu, where her family has lived an entirely different life. There, she encounters Ubah, her double—the woman she might have become had her parents never fled Somalia during the civil war. When Ubah later appears in London, the boundaries between their worlds begin to blur. Blending magical realism with an intimate exploration of migration and family, Salutation Road asks a haunting question: How different would we be if our families had made different choices?

Far Away from Here

Far Away from Here

Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, three young Black American Muslims find themselves confronting the losses, choices, and secrets that have shaped their lives. Fatima returns to the city she fled after the murder of her fiancé, reluctantly taking on the care of his dying mother. Tahani, a single mother who has struggled to reconcile her independence with her religious upbringing, longs for a life that leaves room for her own ambitions. Meanwhile, Saif must face his troubled past and the role he played in his cousin’s death. As their lives intertwine once more, all three must reckon with grief, faith, and the possibility of a different future. A tender, thought-provoking novel about community, belonging, and the courage to reclaim your own story.

United States 2025

Dust Settles North

Dust Settles North

Deena Elgenaidi

Set in 2012, in the aftermath of Egypt’s revolution, Dust Settles North follows Hannah and Zain, two Egyptian American siblings whose lives are upended by their mother’s sudden death and their father’s devastating betrayal. Travelling from New York to Cairo to bury their mother, they find themselves confronting not only their grief but also the painful secrets that have shaped their family. Hannah abandons her plans to attend Columbia Law School and stays in Egypt, where she navigates unfamiliar surroundings, complicated romantic relationships, and a growing political consciousness. Meanwhile, Zain remains in the United States, where his self-destructive behaviour threatens his relationships and forces him to question whether he is repeating his father’s mistakes. When the siblings reunite in Cairo, Hannah becomes caught up in the atmosphere of political upheaval surrounding the Arab Spring, while both struggle to reconcile their conservative Muslim upbringing with their evolving beliefs and desires. Tender and introspective, the novel explores grief, faith, cultural identity, and the complicated ties between parents and children. Through Hannah and Zain’s journeys, ElGenaidi examines what it means to belong to two cultures while searching for a sense of home—and whether a fractured family can find a way to heal.

The Courtesan, Her Lover, and I

The Courtesan, Her Lover, and I

Tarana Husain Khan

In the historic North Indian town of Rampur, two women separated by more than a century discover an unexpected connection through literature, history, and the struggle to have their voices heard. In the nineteenth century, Munni Bai Hijab, a gifted courtesan and poet, captures the heart of the celebrated Urdu poet Dagh Dehlvi. Yet as her lover immortalises her in his verses, her own literary achievements risk being overshadowed by her role as his muse. In contemporary Rampur, Rukmini, an aspiring writer whose family has returned from Dubai after her husband’s business collapses, rediscovers her long-abandoned ambitions. While researching the town’s past at the Rampur Raza Library, she encounters Dagh’s letters and becomes fascinated by Hijab’s forgotten story. As Rukmini uncovers the poet’s life, she begins to recognise parallels with her own struggles as a wife, mother, and woman seeking creative independence. Blending historical fiction, romance, and cultural history, Tarana Husain Khan’s novel explores women’s literary legacies, the complexities of desire, and the power of reclaiming stories that history has overlooked.

Natalja’s Stories

Natalja’s Stories

Inger Christensen

Spanning generations of women and moving between Denmark and Russia, Natalja’s Stories is an inventive, surrealist exploration of family history, migration, and the elusive nature of identity. The story begins with Marie, a young woman living in Copenhagen who leaves her home with a Russian admirer and travels to St. Petersburg. As political upheaval engulfs Russia following the Revolution, Marie dies, and her daughter, Natalja, undertakes the journey back to Denmark carrying her mother’s ashes. But Natalja’s story refuses to unfold as a conventional tale of exile and loss. Retold through the memories and imaginations of successive generations, it becomes a shifting narrative filled with mysterious encounters, murders, absurd characters, and unexpected connections. A particularly unsettling figure, Viktor Blanke, appears across the lives of three generations of mothers and daughters, blurring the boundaries between past and present, memory and invention. As the stories accumulate, identities overlap and family history becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish from fiction. Originally published in Danish in 1988 as Nataljas fortællinger, this playful, formally experimental novella challenges familiar narratives about migration and belonging. Christensen combines dark humour, surrealism, and philosophical reflection to suggest that identity is never fixed: we continually reinvent ourselves through the stories we tell about our lives.

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.

About this theme

Books: 196
Countries: 72

Countries with this theme

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Congo, Democratic Republic

Dominican Republic

North Macedonia