How to Belong

'The kind of book that gives you hope and courage. I loved it' Kit de Waal

'Insightful, thoughtful' Carys Bray

'I relished every word' Shelley Harris

'Such a warm and touching novel' Lissa Evans

A moving and courageous exploration of belonging and finding home in a rapidly-changing world from the critically acclaimed author of Shelter.

Jo grew up in the Forest of Dean, but she was always the one destined to leave for a bigger, brighter future. When her parents retire from their butcher's shop, she returns to her beloved community to save the family legacy, hoping also to save herself. But things are more complex than the rose-tinted version of life which sustained Jo from afar.

Tessa is a farrier, shoeing horses two miles and half a generation away from Jo, further into the forest. Tessa's experience of the community couldn't be more different. Now she too has returned, in flight from a life she could have led, nursing a secret and a past filled with guilt and shame.

Compelled through circumstance to live together, these two women will be forced to confront their sense of identity, and reconsider the meaning of home.