Bellies, Nicola Dinan
Bellies, Nicola Dinan
List: $28.99 | Sale: $20.29
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Bellies
A Novel

Author: Nicola Dinan

Narrator: Nathaniel Curtis, Octavia Nyombi

Unabridged: 12 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/01/2023


Synopsis

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR FROM BOOKRIOT AND BOOKPAGE

I wore a dress on the night I first met Ming.

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.

About Nicola Dinan

Nicola Dinan grew up in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, and now lives in London. Bellies, her debut, was shortlisted for the Mo Siewcharran Prize. Nicola is a graduate of the Faber Academy Writing-a-Novel course. Her work has appeared in Huck, i-D, Paper, Necessary Fiction and elsewhere.


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma

i saw this book half off in a barnes & noble and still maintained my book buying ban, and like any self-respecting bookworm i expected my medal of bravery to promptly arrive by pony express. AND THEN, THREE DAYS LATER, A REAL-WORLD MIRACLE OCCURRED. i went to my parents' house where i discovered the p......more

Goodreads review by BJ

This is a beautifully observed character study; a rich, intelligent, and deeply relatable novel that I mostly did not enjoy reading. I think this kind of literary realism just isn’t my thing right now. When the novel opens, Tom and Ming are seniors in college. Tom is figuring out what it means to be......more

Goodreads review by Tori

I feel so conflicted, i feel like i should have loved this book but i was just so. bored. the. entire. time. I didn’t feel invested in the characters at all, the pacing was not my favorite and i overall just could not connect to the writing. I’m happy so many people like this book and wish i could hav......more

Goodreads review by Liv

✩✩✩✩.5 'I have a bad habit of going along with things that aren't right for me, and I'm just trying to do the things a person would do if they loved themselves as much as they loved other people.' ------------------------------------- old review: It’s been a while since a book has moved me as Bellies h......more