Now Available in Paperback
Belonging
A Novel By Jill Fordyce
A heartbreaking coming of age story that traverses lifelong friendship, first love, and a young woman’s fierce desire to transcend her traumatic childhood, Belonging will appeal to readers of Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing, Kristin Hannah’s Firefly Lane, and Ann Packer’s The Dive from Clausen’s Pier.
Jenny is thirteen when an epic dust storm rolls into her central California town in December 1977. Bedridden after contracting a life-threatening illness in the storm and suffering a shocking loss, Jenny realizes she will never be cared for by the mother who both neglects and terrifies her or the father who allows it. She relies on her cousin, Heather, who has the loving home Jenny longs for; her beloved great-uncle, Gino, the last link between generations; her best friend, Henry, a free spirit with whom she shares an inexplicable bond; and earnest baseball star, Billy, who becomes her first love. After a stunning turn of events in both their lives, Jenny and Henry leave for college in LA together in the summer of 1982— Jenny fleeing a broken heart, and Henry running from something he can’t reveal, even to his best friend. When she returns home years later, the life Jenny so carefully created collides with the one she left behind.
Spanning three decades, Belonging is about first love and heartbreak, friendship and secrets, family and forgiveness, hometowns and coming of age, and memory and music. The heart of the story is Jenny’s struggle to undo the binds of a childhood that have deeply affected her life, the painful path to love endured by children raised in alcoholic families, and the grim reality of believing you must hide a part of yourself in order to belong.
Praise for Belonging
“Fordyce captures the complexities of both love and forgiveness as well as the painful ways the events of the past can’t help but color our present-day lives. Belonging is a wise, uplifting, and deeply compassionate novel with characters so vivid they feel like part of your own family.”
—Stacey Swann, author of Olympus, Texas
“Belonging is a beautifully rendered, intimate story tracing the life of one of the most lovable, real protagonists you’ll ever meet, the vivid characters who populate her world, and the connections—and, ultimately, forgiveness—between them. Readers will be transfixed and absorbed by Jenny’s journey from a devastating childhood illness and loss, her coming of age in a gorgeously depicted backdrop of Bakersfield, CA, and the eventual move away from home that brings her closer to her past than ever. A significant accomplishment.”
—Liza Monroy, author of Seeing as Your Shoes Are Soon to Be On Fire
“Belonging is a moving and original story of a girl coming of age and learning who she is in a family wracked with tension, set against a California landscape from the seventies to the present, chronicling the history of that time and place as much as its indelible characters. Jill Fordyce is a sensitive and beautiful writer and a novelist to watch.”
—Malena Watrous, author of If You Follow Me
“Jill’s crafted a smart, taut, emotional novel that reveals tremendous kindness and dignity … this novel is honestly redemptive, not falsely redemptive. I highly recommend you read it. It will take you home again.”
—Shelley Blanton-Stroud, Author of Poster Girl
“With prodigious insight and great delicacy, Fordyce intimately explores ideas of family in its many forms–how family can both empower and damage–while also probing the battles between the head and the heart in matters of love and acceptance.”
—Shelf Awareness
“The characters’ Catholicism plays a major role in the story, as does the fact that some people justify bigotry in the name of faith. Fordyce doesn’t shy away from this and other harsh realities, and her complex characterization feels fully realized by the story’s end.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“This will break your heart, then piece it back together…A poignant coming of age story, this is one that will have you all up in your feels. Highly recommend!”
—Lily Shadowlyn
You know that quote by Stephen King that says “Books are a uniquely portable magic?” That’s what I felt reading Belonging by Jill Fordyce.”
—Book Notions
“…the plot is paced perfectly to really understand the complexities of this young girl’s circumstances…I easily followed where life had brought her by 2017. I walked right into the last scene, and as Jenny wept, I sobbed and sobbed!”
—Novels Alive
Soundtrack From Belonging
Music was a key element in writing Belonging. When I wanted to put myself in a certain place and time, it always helped me to listen to music. Some scenes appeared to me with the song already playing. The scene in Heather’s bedroom after the graduation party presented itself with Melissa playing in the background. Similarly, I always heard Ain’t Even Done with the Night when Jenny is packing up for college. Jenny is a girl who spends a lot of time alone in her room listening to the radio, so it made sense that there was a soundtrack.
Interviews & Press
USC Daily Trojan
Deborah Kalb Books
Book Notions
Fresh Fiction
Campaign for the American Reader
The Page 69 Test: Belonging
Belonging, the Movie
Nashville Lifestyles
Franklin Lifestyles
Santa Clara Magazine
Fresh Fiction – New Books to Watch
Ashley Hasty – Most Anticipated Contemporary Fiction of 2024
Author2Author Podcast
Where to Order
Hardcover
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookshop
Books-A-Million
Paperback
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Bookshop
Target
eBook
Apple Books
Google Play
Kindle
Kobo
Nook
Audiobook
Apple Books
Audible
Google Play
Kobo
Libro-fm
Nook