The Art of Belonging
by Hugh Mackay
 
The Art of Belonging is a detailed and passionate argument for the role of communities in helping us develop as moral human beings.
 
Drawing on his lifelong work as a social researcher, Hugh Mackay creates a fictional suburb, Southwood, and populates it with characters who, like most of us, struggle to reconcile their need to belong with their desire to live life on their own terms.  We witness the conflicts that arise when individuals assert their needs at the expense of others, but we also glimpse the satisfactions that flow from contributing to the common good.