I BELONG HERE is an accomplished and emotionally comprehensive extended metaphor, adroitly used by an author seeking the positive repudiation of a hate crime and all that lies behind it.

Anita Sethi’s journey along the Pennine Way, Britain’s “backbone,” was ignited by a vile verbal racist assault — a variation of the “go back to where you came from” trope — on a train as she travelled to a literary festival in Newcastle. Still in long-term trauma, she then suffered the devastation of the death of a much-loved friend.

Her journey serves as a meditation both on her recollection of these specific events but also on the bigger issues faced by a society that diminishes and denudes the opportunities for, and contributions of, its non-white and non-male citizens.