Notes to Self

THE EXTRAORDINARY #1 BESTSELLER 
 
'Fiercely feminist, fascinating. I have recommended this to several people. And I'm doing the same here' Sunday Times 
 
'Do not read this book in public: it will make you cry' Anne Enright 
 
'I am afraid of being the disruptive woman. And of not being disruptive enough. I am afraid. But I am doing it anyway.' 
 
In this dazzling debut, Emilie Pine speaks to the business of living as a woman in the 21st century - its extraordinary pain and its extraordinary joy. Courageous, humane and uncompromising, she writes with radical honesty on birth and death, on the grief of infertility, on caring for her alcoholic father, on taboos around female bodies and female pain, on sexual violence and violence against the self. Devastatingly poignant and profoundly wise - and joyful against the odds - Notes to Self offers a portrait not just of its author but of a whole generation. 
 
'Unsparing, formidable, raw. The kind of book you want to give everyone' Irish Times 
 
'Complex, accessible, thoughtful... You will love these essays' Pandora Sykes, The High Low 
 
'Every line pulses with the pain and joy and complexity of an extraordinary life' Mark O'Connell 
 
RUTH &amp; PEN, EMILIE PINE'S FIRST NOVEL, IS OUT ON THE 5TH OF MAY 2022

Light on its feet and goes in deep

Wry, shocking, winningly frank . . . What is most striking about the collection is its universality. [These stories] urgently need to be told. Pine does so with an honesty and vigour that are always uplifting

This compelling memoir crystallises the human experience and gives words to the feelings you never knew you had

A truly brilliant writer . . . A great book

An exceptional collection of essays . . . Pine's sharp, unadorned writing style allows the unobscured truths to rise to the surface

What resonates is Pine's articulation of the small, cumulative frustrations of life as a woman

'I am afraid of being the disruptive woman. And of not being disruptive enough. I am afraid. But I am doing it anyway.' 
 
In this dazzling debut, Emilie Pine speaks powerfully from her painful personal experience - on the emotional labour of caring for her alcoholic father, on the unspeakable grief of miscarriage and infertility, on the social taboos around menstrual blood and female pain, on the ways young women use their own bodies as a weapon against themselves. Courageous, humane and uncompromising, devastatingly poignant and yet never self-pitying, these pieces investigate and challenge society's assumptions around pain, strength, resilience and identity, ultimately embracing joy and hope in the business of living.

Emilie Pine

Mesmerising . . . I became completely immersed in this emotional, intimate read

[An] uplifting debut novel . . . joy is a vital ingredient in Ruth & Pen

The debut novel from the author of the personal essay collection Notes to Self is a poignant, raw exploration of the courage needed to find your space in the world

Impressive . . . Pine explores with great acuity and tenderness the restorative, capacious nature of love. A wise and lovely book

Pine makes her chapters playful, writing with a friendly curiousness that brings to mind Ali Smith . . . Pine's measured yet tender juxtaposition of the women's days doesn't draw overly neat parallels so much as prove that one needs the other - younger needs older, optimist needs pessimist, introvert needs extrovert. And our opposites might help us find clarity

[Ruth & Pen] finds heartbreaking beauty in our everyday lives . . . There is a real tenderness in the way in which Pine writes about the teenage girls in the novel

Pine reinforces her reputation as one of the most empathetic writers in the country

There's no doubting the novel's basic integrity; its warmth, its undogmatic interest in ordinary lives, and the impressive range of its imaginative sympathies

Moving and raw . . . Pine's ability to enter the heads of two such different characters is a sure sign of literary promise

This book is an intimate portrait of love and grief, and the tender, fragile courage required just to live each day

A confident walk through the lives of others, two women seeking their place in the world and a peace in themselves

The brilliant debut novel from the internationally bestselling author of Notes to Self

Dublin, 7 October 2019 
 
One day, one city, two women: Ruth and Pen. Neither known to the other, but both asking themselves the same questions: how to be with others and how, when the world doesn't seem willing to make space for them, to be with themselves? 
 
Ruth's marriage to Aidan is in crisis. Today she needs to make a choice - to stay or not to stay, to take the risk of reaching out, or to pull up the drawbridge. For teenage Pen, today is the day the words will flow, and she will speak her truth to Alice, to ask for what she so desperately wants. 
 
Deeply involving, poignant and radiantly intelligent, it is a portrait of the limits of grief and love, of how we navigate our inner and outer landscapes, and the tender courage demanded by the simple, daily quest of living.

Emilie Pine

Praise for Ruth & Pen

Mesmerising . . . I became completely immersed in this emotional, intimate read

[An] uplifting debut novel . . . joy is a vital ingredient in Ruth & Pen

The debut novel from the author of the personal essay collection Notes to Self is a poignant, raw exploration of the courage needed to find your space in the world

Mesmerising . . . I became completely immersed in this emotional, intimate read

[An] uplifting debut novel . . . joy is a vital ingredient in Ruth & Pen

The debut novel from the author of the personal essay collection Notes to Self is a poignant, raw exploration of the courage needed to find your space in the world

Mesmerising . . . I became completely immersed in this emotional, intimate read

[An] uplifting debut novel . . . joy is a vital ingredient in Ruth & Pen

The debut novel from the author of the personal essay collection Notes to Self is a poignant, raw exploration of the courage needed to find your space in the world

Books by Emilie Pine

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter