Introduction

Appealing to readers of Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing, Kristin Hannah’s Firefly Lane, and Ann Packer’s The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, Belonging is a heartbreaking and hopeful coming-of-age story that traverses lifelong friendship, first love, and a young woman’s fierce desire to transcend her traumatic childhood. 

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. 

ADVANCE 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 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 

“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

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Excerpt

Chapter One


DECEMBER 1977
On the morning of December 20, 1977, a wall of dirt pushed by a warm wind began to barrel through the canyons surrounding California's southern San Joaquin Valley. When Jenny Hayes arrived at school, the Christmas decorations that hung outside the cafeteria swayed back and forth in a cold, light wind. But by late morning, the air turned oddly warm, the wind picked up, and a dust plume that rose to five thou- ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

From the author:

Henry and Billy are the two most important people in Jenny’s life, but they are so different. What is it about each of them that appeals to her?

When Bakersfield experiences the epic dust storm and Jenny comes down with valley fever, how does this experience change her life?

How does the town of Bakersfield, its music and immigrant history become part of this story?

The theme of belonging to a place, a family and friends are part of this story. As a reader do you have a similar or different story?

Nonna and Uncle Gino take care of Jenny as she is growing up. What does she learn from them?

The parents of Billy, Jenny, and Henry play an important role in this story. Do their families influence the choices they make?

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