Bellies

‘A beautiful love story’ Irish Times

De: Nicola Dinan

Narrado por: Nathaniel Curtis, Octavia Nyombi

Brought to you by Penguin.

It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at a university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a charming 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 shifts in their relationship 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?

'Smart, hilarious and deeply moving' Elliot Page, author of Pageboy

'Bellies announces Nicola Dinan as a genuine literary talent, a gimlet-eyed cartographer of the human heart' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti

'Thoughtful, seductive, and entirely engrossing - Bellies is already a classic' Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Lot


©2023 Nicola Dinan (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

At its best, Bellies is as deep as it is chic (Jeremy Atherton Lin)

The most hotly anticipated novel of the summer

A tender, emotional exploration of gender and sexual identity

Beautiful depiction of derailed love

A poignant tale that explores the messy complexities of relationships, with recognisably imperfect characters at its core

Dizzyingly beautiful

A vividly drawn cast of supporting characters enhances this absorbing and carefully balanced novel - narrated from both Tom and Ming's perspectives - which manages to be both deeply touching and wickedly witty.

Dinan's gift as a writer is her ability to make us feel - when her characters cry, we cry; when they laugh, we laugh; and everybody is changed by the end of this novel, including the reader. A beautiful love story and an exceptional debut.

This begins as a boy-meets-boy love story, but when the couple leaves university to go to London, one goes through the process of transitioning and the story is about what happens to their relationship from that. It's a really beautiful, underrepresented love story in fiction.

A novel overspilling with care and affection for its characters.... The hype for her book is high

stunning, raw and tender

a must read! the narrators did an excellent job! I smiled, shed a few tears and wasn’t ready to say goodbye.

loved it, fascinating, sightly flawed

It's a very compelling story, contemporary and powerful. I found some of it overwritten, trying too hard, just over done.... but accepted that as youthfulness, life being discovered fresh, for the first time.

The performance of the two voices is superb especially Tom. But really, guys, a quick online search would have helped avoid a list of mispronounced Malay words. Ming is supposedly Malaysian or brought up in KL?

But hey, overall it's a great performance....