DEBUTS | Daily Mail Online

At a university drag night, newly ‘out’ Tom meets charismatic, half-Malaysian playwright Ming, and before long they are in love and planning a future

DEBUTS

BELLIES 

by Nicola Dinan (Doubleday £14.99, 336pp)

At a university drag night, newly ‘out’ Tom meets charismatic, half-Malaysian playwright Ming, and before long they are in love and planning a future.

But after they move to London, Ming slowly withdraws, then announces the intention to transition, leaving shattered Tom to accept it or leave.

Then Ming writes a play about it.

Over the next few years, the ripples from this affect their families, friends, careers and test what you sacrifice for love.

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. Look out for the TV adaptation.

There’s a trigger warning from the author introducing this devastating novel, warning of suicide, self-harm, transphobia, birth trauma and postnatal depression inspired by personal experience

THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE 

by Kate Hardie (4th Estate £14.99, 192pp)

There’s a trigger warning from the author introducing this devastating novel, warning of suicide, self-harm, transphobia, birth trauma and postnatal depression inspired by personal experience.

And what a package of pain this is.

A single mother of a 13-year-old wakes with blood in her mouth and raw flesh between her teeth.

A severed toe lies on her doorstep and a local boy has gone missing.

What has she done? And how much of this horror is real and how much the projection of mental illness?

This is a raw and terrifying portrait of a damaged mind unravelling yet struggling to stay in the everyday world for her child. Maternal love is the pinpoint of light in the dark that propels this short but visceral novel.

Black, lesbian Mickey is living the life she’d always dreamed of: she’s a writer on a trendy New York magazine

HOMEBODIES 

by Tembe Denton-Hurst (HQ £16.99, 320pp)

Black, lesbian Mickey is living the life she’d always dreamed of: she’s a writer on a trendy New York magazine, even if that means reviewing lipstick rather than tackling ‘issues’, and has a loving, nurturing partner.

But when her bullying boss sacks her, she crafts an excoriating online response highlighting racism in the industry before fleeing back to her hometown to lick her wounds and risk a dangerous liaison with her former, manipulative girlfriend.

When her letter goes viral, she must decide whether to use her voice, regardless of the cost.

It’s a bit self-indulgent and slow in the middle, and the minor characters not always emotionally credible, but there’s an engaging energy that promises more to come.