'It's very like falling in love without quite knowing why . . . There are places on this planet we belong and they are not necessarily where we are born.'
From her childhood yearnings to escape the backseat of the family car and explore the unknown to her incredible journeys wandering the globe as an adult, from Nairobi, The Philippines and Tasmania to a tiny corner in the south of France, Isabel Huggan's 'Belonging' is a journey of pure pleasure - intimate, richly entertaining and laced with humour.
At the heart of it is an old stone house among the vineyards in the foothills of the Cevennes mountains in France, from where Huggan shares a vivid and moving account of what it's like to settle into a new country and a new language in middle age.
Having roamed the world with her Scottish-born husband, when she realises how deeply he loves the Cevennes she agrees to settle there - on the condition that she goes "back home" every year. But where is home, how do we know where we belong?
In exploring these questions, 'Belonging' shares an intimate conversation between the narrator, whose life has not turned out as she expected, and her readers, who will find their own concerns illuminated in surprising ways - about family, love, memories, where we belong and what we might have left unexplored. As patterns emerge - happiness, heartache, friendship, place - we see how all of us construct our lives through remembrance, however unreliable, and storytelling.
Warm, funny and beautifully written, 'Belonging' traces one woman's journey towards understanding the mysterious ways in which chance and choice shape our lives.
