7 Books About Characters Bridging Two Worlds
Where Belonging Is a Journey, and Identity Lives in the In-Between
There is something achingly beautiful about stories of duality—of characters who walk the line between cultures, worlds, or selves, always one step away from belonging and one heartbeat away from transformation. These are the wanderers, the straddlers of realities, the seekers who carry two languages in their mouths, two histories on their backs, and a thousand questions in their hearts.
To live between worlds is to constantly navigate contradiction. It’s the dance of holding tradition in one hand and change in the other, of hearing the echo of your ancestors while forging a path that’s wholly your own. In fantasy and contemporary fiction alike, these characters are bridges—not just between cultures or species or magic and mundane, but between readers and the vast, complex beauty of the human experience.
Here are 7 unforgettable books about characters who don’t quite belong anywhere… and in doing so, come to redefine what it means to belong at all.
1. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
🌌 Lipan Apache | Fantasy | The living, the dead, and everything in between
Elatsoe—El for short—can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of Lipan Apache women. In an alternate America layered with Indigenous folklore and quiet resistance, Elatsoe investigates her cousin’s murder while grappling with ancestral power and modern injustice.
Why it belongs on your shelf: A gorgeously grounded fantasy about navigating both contemporary life and ancient legacy, where culture is both armor and guide.
2. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
📚 Indian-American | Literary Fiction | Caught between two names, two homes, and two identities
Gogol Ganguli, born in the U.S. to Bengali immigrant parents, struggles with his name, his heritage, and the invisible pull of both India and America. Through his journey, Lahiri weaves a delicate tapestry of diaspora, longing, and the weight of legacy.
Why it belongs on your shelf: It’s a quiet, piercing exploration of identity, where every moment is steeped in nostalgia, nuance, and the ache of not-quite-fitting.
3. The Girl from the Other Side by Nagabe
🌲 Fantasy | Manga | A haunting fable of love, isolation, and liminality
In a world split between the cursed and the untouched, a small girl named Shiva lives with a monstrous creature known only as Teacher. She is human. He is not. And yet their bond—gentle, protective, deeply emotional—transcends boundaries.
Why it belongs on your shelf: It’s lyrical and gorgeously illustrated, a visual poem about otherness, chosen family, and bridging the unbridgeable.
4. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
🐒 Graphic Novel | Myth meets modern identity in a brilliant collision
Three stories—one about a Chinese-American teen desperate to fit in, one about the legendary Monkey King, and one about a cringe-worthy stereotype—intertwine in this genre-blending, whip-smart exploration of racism, assimilation, and self-acceptance.
Why it belongs on your shelf: It’s bold, funny, devastating, and deeply human. A must-read for anyone who’s ever felt like they had to erase part of themselves to be accepted.
5. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
🌞 Epic Fantasy | Worlds within worlds, gods within mortals
Set in a fantasy world inspired by pre-Columbian Americas, this sweeping tale follows Serapio—a blind man destined for godhood—and Xiala, a sea captain with magical blood and a troubled past. As celestial prophecy looms, they are pulled between duty and desire, origin and destiny.
Why it belongs on your shelf: It’s a masterclass in worldbuilding and character depth, where the divine and the human are constantly at odds—and often, the same.
6. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
🌙 Contemporary Fiction | Between faith and freedom, family and individuality
An Indian-American Muslim family reunites for a wedding, but beneath the surface lies years of unspoken hurt, especially between the estranged youngest son and his family. Told from multiple perspectives, it paints a portrait of love complicated by culture, generational trauma, and longing.
Why it belongs on your shelf: It’s a quiet storm of emotion, and a tender, profound reflection on what it means to exist between tradition and personal truth.
7. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
🚀 Science Fiction | Between castes, between binaries, between worlds
Aster lives on a generation ship segregated by race and class, echoing the structures of the antebellum South. She’s neurodivergent, queer, and brilliant—navigating a society that marginalizes her at every turn while uncovering secrets that could shift the future of the entire vessel.
Why it belongs on your shelf: Bold and genre-bending, it’s a blistering interrogation of power, identity, and the spaces in between systems of control.
Final Word:
These characters don’t belong to just one world—they belong to many. And in their stories, we find pieces of ourselves: the questions we ask about who we are, the ways we stretch to hold all the parts of us, the bridges we build when none exist.
So step into the in-between. That’s where the magic lives.
