Bellies by Nicola Dinan
Nicola Dinan's powerful and vulnerable debut Bellies marks a watershed moment in British trans fiction
For a while now, British readers have had to look to the US literary scene for trans novels, with Torrey Peters and Imogen Binnie leading the way Stateside. British publishing has been slow to platform trans novelists, sticking predominantly to some truly stellar non-fiction – from Christine Burns and Shon Faye to Grace Lavery. Thus, Bellies by Nicola Dinan feels like something of a watershed moment in British publishing – it’s a powerful, vulnerable and, above all, deeply chic debut.
There have already been Sally Rooney comparisons to Dinan and they do neither author justice; there is a specificity to Dinan’s writing as a British trans author in her late twenties that you can’t find anywhere else. Bellies follows Tom and Ming, a young gay couple, from their meeting in university through to their late twenties.
Two years in, Ming transitions, and their dynamic changes. To peg Bellies as solely a documentation of transness feels almost reductive; Dinan creates a broad, vivid portrayal of the uncertainty and isolation of life in your twenties, switching perspectives to bring ample light and shade to both characters.
If Bellies has any flaws it is perhaps too ambitious, squeezing in an overabundance of characters and settings into its pages. But this is such a rare criticism to lobby at a debut novel, which can so often feel slim and undercooked. Rather, Bellies is a veritable buffet of a book – we’re lucky to have it.