Ruth & Pen

Mesmerising … I became completely immersed in this emotional, intimate read * Good Housekeeping *
[An] uplifting debut novel … joy is a vital ingredient in Ruth & Pen * The Observer *
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 * i *
Impressive … Pine explores with great acuity and tenderness the restorative, capacious nature of love. A wise and lovely book * Daily Mail *
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 * i *
[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 * The Irish Times *
Pine reinforces her reputation as one of the most empathetic writers in the country * The Irish Examiner *
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 – Kevin Power * The Irish Times *
Moving and raw … Pine’s ability to enter the heads of two such different characters is a sure sign of literary promise * The Sunday Times (Ireland) *
This book is an intimate portrait of love and grief, and the tender, fragile courage required just to live each day * Irish Country Magazine *

Emilie Pine is a writer and academic based in Dublin. Her first collection of personal essays, Notes to Self, won the Butler Literary Award, the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award, and the overall prize for Book of the Year at the 2018 An Post Irish Book Awards. She is also playwright of the critically acclaimed Good Sex, and the author of the novel, Ruth & Pen, which won the 2022 Kate O’Brien first fiction award. Emilie’s work has been translated into 17 languages.

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