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Title details for Bellies by Nicola Dinan - Available

Bellies

A Novel

by Nicola Dinan
ebook
1 of 2 copies available
Borrow Read a sample Read a sample
1 of 2 copies available
"Smart, hilarious and deeply moving." –ELLIOT PAGE
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR from Google Play, NPR, BookRiot and BookPage
Amazon Editors' Pick for Best Books of 2023
It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at their local university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a magnetic young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom's awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming's orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he's already mapped out their future together. But shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition.
From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face tectonic shifts in their relationship and friend circle in the wake of Ming's transition. Through a spiral of unforeseen crises—some personal, some professional, some life-altering—Tom and Ming are forced to confront the vastly different shapes their lives have taken since graduating, and each must answer the essential question: Is it worth losing a part of yourself to become who you are?
Buoyed by a voice as tender, effervescent and wryly funny as the cast of characters it centers, Bellies is an unforgettable story of youth, intimacy, hunger and heartbreak, at once boldly original yet fiercely familiar, which unabashedly holds a mirror up to our most vulnerable selves and desires.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 1, 2023

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780369736567

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780369736567
      • File size: 531 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2023

      In Hong Kong/Kuala Lumpur-raised, London-based Dinan's debut, two queer students connect wholeheartedly at a university drag-night event and launch a life together in London. Then Ming announces her intention to transition. With a 60,000-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from July 1, 2023
      Two gay young men, white English university student Tom and fellow student Ming, who is Malaysian, meet at a party and feel an instant attraction. As their relationship evolves, the book's point of view alternates between them, and Tom begins to feel that Ming is keeping secrets that are poisoning the relationship. When Tom himself confesses to having had an aborted sexual encounter with a colleague, Ming tearfully reveals that he plans to transition, a decision that will ultimately result in Ming's ending the relationship. A budding playwright, Ming then writes a play about the relationship that infuriates Tom, who thinks, "I hated Ming. I really, really hated her." Ming then moves from London to New York to study playwriting, while Tom continues working at an investment bank, a job he loathes. A tragedy offers an opportunity for rapprochement, but will they take it? In her debut, Dinan, who speaks of her own transition in an author's note, writes with quiet authority, insight, and compassion. The result is a beautiful work of literature with fully realized, highly empathic characters; her treatment of Ming's transition is superbly and insightfully handled. An important contribution to the slender body of transgender literature.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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