Emilie Pine

notes-to-self

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

Ruth & Pen

Notes to Self

Discover the Penguin books that shaped us

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.

THE EXTRAORDINARY #1 BESTSELLER AND WORD-OF-MOUTH LITERARY PHENOMENON 
 
'Razor-sharp and raw; her story is utterly original yet as familiar as my own breath . . . my favourite memoir of the year' Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed 
 
***** 
 
 '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. 
 
 'Do not read this book in public: it will make you cry' Anne Enright 
 
'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

Emilie Pine is Professor of Modern Drama at University College Dublin, Ireland. She has published widely as an academic and critic. Her first collection of personal essays Notes to Self won the Butler Literary Award, the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award, and Book of the Year 2018 at the Irish Book Awards. Ruth &amp; Pen is her first novel.

Notes to Self

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An astonishingly fine book

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

A brilliant collection

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

About Emilie Pine

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