Ripeness
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Pan Macmillan
Published:22nd May '25
Should be back in stock very soon
From the bestselling author of Summerwater comes Sarah Moss's best novel yet: a story of love, loss and belonging that moves between 1960s Italy and modern day Ireland.
From 1960s Italy to present-day Ireland, Ripeness is the story of a family secret that rips apart a teenage girl’s world, only for her to discover its meaning decades later.
'The achievement of a lifetime' - Jessie Burton, author of The House of Fortune
'A book of lasting pleasures' - Eleanor Catton, Booker Prize-winning author of Birnam Wood
'A powerful and beautifully written story of family, friendship and identity' - Guardian
Just out of school and teetering on the brink of adulthood, Edith is sent alone to rural Italy. Her task is simple: support her sister Lydia, a brilliant but brittle ballet dancer, through the final weeks of her pregnancy. Once the baby is born, she is to make a phone call that will change all of their lives forever.
Decades later, Edith is living a contented life in Ireland, happily divorced and unexpectedly free. But when her friend Méabh receives an email from a stranger claiming to be her brother, everything shifts. As Méabh confronts a history she never knew she had, Edith must finally face the truth of that long-ago summer, and the secret she has carried for a lifetime.
‘Tender and rueful . . . Sarah Moss is a marvel of insight and eloquence’ - Emma Donoghue, author of The Paris Express
‘One of our greatest living writers’ - Katherine May, author of Wintering
Praise for Sarah Moss:
‘Throws much contemporary writing into the shade’ Hilary Mantel
‘One of our very best contemporary novelists’ The Independent
‘A brilliant mind’ The Guardian
‘Moss has quietly been putting out some of the most interesting and carefully sculpted novels of recent years’ Financial Times
‘One of the finest contemporary writers working in Britain today’ Stylist
‘Is Sarah Moss the best British writer never nominated for the Booker?’ The Daily Mail
‘Nothing escapes her sly humour and brilliant touch’ Jessie Burton
‘The most brilliant writer. She deserves to win all the prizes’ Joanna Trollope Trollope
Sex and childbirth, emigrant and exile, the present and the past: Sarah Moss’s ambidextrous talent is evident on every page of this elegant novel. It is intelligent, but never disembodied; evocative, but never sentimental; honest, but never cruel. Ripeness is a book of tart and lasting pleasures -- Eleanor Catton, Booker prize-winning author of The Luminaries and Birnam Wood
This book felt to me like I was reading the achievement of a lifetime, written by one of the best writers alive. Moving, unexpected, masterful, it is a story of stories, of belonging, of exits and entrances, and everything in between. Moss’s understanding of who her characters are is also her understanding of all of us. A beautiful, powerful read that echoed for me long after -- Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist
Tender and rueful, Ripeness is a tale of being a foreigner that moves between 1960s Italy and 2020s Ireland, finding pain and bliss in both. Working at the height of her mature powers, Sarah Moss is a marvel of insight and eloquence -- Emma Donoghue, author of Room
I devoured Ripeness, thrilling at the world Moss brings to life and the characters who inhabit it. What a delicious novel * Literary Review *
The sublime author Sarah Moss returns with Ripeness . . . Glorious * Vogue *
Impressive * The Independent *
Aluminous tale about borders, bodies and a sense of belonging -- Thomas McMullan, Financial Times
Sarah Moss is a master of the ticking clock. Her novels thrum with tension . . . as the climax rushes towards us, Moss makes every moment count * The Sunday Times *
Sarah Moss is one of the best writers working today, and this might be her best book yet. A wise and tender novel about birth, ballet and belonging, it captivated me completely -- Bobby Palmer, author of Isaac and the Egg
Beautifully crafted . . . absorbing and moving * Daily Mail *
An extended meditation on what home or belonging might mean in a period of disruption and displacement . . . Moss perfectly judges the prickly absolutism of the younger Edith . . . unfailingly spare and alert . . . captivating * The Irish Times *
Evocative . . . Immensely moving - and this story feels very much like life . . . This novel lingers so strongly in the mind * Harper's Bazaar *
A powerful and beautifully written story of family, friendship and identity * The Guardian *
An expansive, expressive tale of family, history and ballet, this is illuminated by pin-sharp imagery and rueful self-awareness * Mail on Sunday *
An insightful examination of family ties and belonging * The Economist *
There’s no shortage of gifted writers who have never had a sniff of a major prize. The English novelist Sarah Moss, now based in Dublin, is such an obvious example of this . . . Moss’ new novel, Ripeness, might fix that * The Critic *
ISBN: 9781529035490
Dimensions: 243mm x 163mm x 29mm
Weight: 504g
304 pages