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Ruth & Pen

Ruth & Pen

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

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

The brilliant debut novel from Emilie Pine, author of the international bestseller 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 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Reviews

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

About the author

Emilie Pine

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 & Pen is her first novel.
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