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Bellies

‘A beautiful love story’ Irish Times

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About this listen

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

City Life Coming of Age Fiction Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Urban Romance Witty England

Critic reviews

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
All stars
Most relevant
The second narrator performance of ‘Ming’ pales in comparison to ‘Tom’. Brings the book down overall for me.

Changing narrator

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This is the best audiobook I've listened to. the story is absolutely stunning, and the voice actors are incredible. I could listen to it all over again right now

Beautiful story

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I wish it was all read by Toms character, the inflection in Mings characters voice was unbearable

Maybe one to read rather than listen

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The voice for Ming is irritating because the intonation and mispronunciation of words is so distracting and doesn’t match the character at all. The overall story is somewhat cliche but not bad.

Ok story but not well told

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Beautifully written - cried loads! Gorgeous depiction of falling in love, coming out, having relationships challenges and of course grief.

Beautifully written - cried loads!

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