I wasn’t sure what to expect from this novel, having only had experience of Pine’s non-fiction essays previously, but there was lots that I enjoyed in Ruth & Pen. Told over the course of 24 hours, Pine nods towards the modernist fiction that celebrated the circadian novel by slipping in and out of an almost stream of consciousness third person narrative. So, everything I love in gently experimental fiction. The two protagonists only brush up against each other in contemporary Dublin, but both go through a great deal in the short time frame of the novel, with Ruth, a therapist, debating on the future of her marriage, and Pen, a neurodivergent school pupil, experiencing unrequited love while protesting against the climate emergency. All topical and important, but Ruth & Pen also manages to be gentle and lovely.

Honest, beautiful writing that has really stayed with me since I finished this book. Having read Pine’s previous work I can see that she has brought her own vulnerability and experiences here in this character driven story about a counsellor dealing with life’s challenges including relationships and IVF.

A huge, huge thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for an arc of this truly anticipated read.

When I first saw that Emilie Pine was coming out with a novel, I genuinely squealed with excitement. I am truly obsessed with her essay collection, Notes to Self, so I could not wait to get my greedy little hands on this. She did not disappoint :)

Ruth and Pen are both living in Ireland, and we the readers, are treated to a day in their lives, and their heads.
Ruth is an older woman who runs her own clinical practice, but is dealing with her own emotional fallout from a tumultuous marriage and difficulties conceiving.
Pen is a neurodivergent sixteen year old girl who is trying to spend the day on a date with the girl she's interested in.

I truly loved the layout of this novel. With the protagonists only brushing up against each other, with the chapter titles being different minutes of the day, with different points of view feeding into the reader's experience but highlighting how everyday communication and relationships can never be fully known by other people, it was an astounding read. I think it's even more impactful if you've read Notes to Self and you know about Pine's own experiences, which have definitely shaped this novel. I thought that she was very clever in how she presented drastically different characters to help highlight the point that - you can never really know what's going on in someone else's life. It's a character-driven novel for sure, so if you're looking for plot, this is not the place. But I think there's a lot of information to digest in this, and it's left me more aware than I was going into it. I will love anything Pine does, truly.

A really really different book.

But I really really enjoyed it.

Set over one day too so fast paced and not like anything I have read before.

Interesting

The story of 2 women, Ruth, a counsellor in the midst of marital trauma and Pen, an autistic adolescent who is struggling to cope. There was minimal crossover of the two characters so I felt this read more as two separate stories. I identified more with Ruth’s story but could feel the pain from both.

Update: I'm giving this 5 stars after all. I simply liked it too much for 4 stars.

4 stars so far, but maybe I’ll change it to 5 later one as I just can’t get Pen and Ruth out of my head. This is a beautiful debut about love, vulnerability, honesty, and being; it’s about life really.
Thank you Hamish Hamilton and Netgalley UK for the ARC.

Ruth and Pen is set over a single day, following the lives of Ruth, a counsellor (who’s been undergoing IVF and has a disintegrating marriage to Aiden) and Pen, a neuro-diverse teenager (who’s in love with her best friend, Alice) We follow Ruth as she works and attends hospital and Pen as she takes part in a climate change rally.
The book reveals the complexity of their inner lives, both of them lonely and finding it difficult to relate to others. The character portrayal is intense and the whole is beautifully written. There’s pain and love - it honestly shows human vulnerability and how we struggle to live our lives, how we struggle to be.
It took me a while to connect with the characters but I enjoyed it, once I did.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All views are my own.

“But all the ruined women, Ruth thinks. We can’t all run away to cottages in the woods, the place would be fucking packed.”

Ruth is a therapist whose marriage is imploding, collapsing inwards under the weight of grief from multiple miscarriages and failed rounds of IVF. Pen is a neurodivergent teenager crushed by the weight of the climate crisis, but nursing a seed of hope that her best friend Alice also wants to be more than friends. Neither knows the other, but both are asking the same questions: how to be with others and how, when the world won't make space for you, to be with yourself?

As they criss cross Dublin, Ruth & Pen weigh up their options both in their own lives and in the broader world. These completely different women are beautifully realised and totally authentic, and Pine’s writing places us completely in their worldview. My heart broke for both of them as my mind opened up to new ways of looking at the world through their eyes. This is both a powerful character study and a love song to Dublin, which hasn’t been as lovingly or realistically rendered in writing since Ulysses.

I went into this worried it could not live up to Emilie Pine’s exquisite non-fiction debut ‘Notes to Self’, and then devoured it in one sitting. It is just gorgeous. I’ve included one of my favourite quotes in the comments, but honestly I could have highlighted half the book. This is a strong contender for my book of the year.

I liked the concept of Ruth & Pen – following two very different people through just one day of their lives, even with minimal contact with one another. Both characters do a huge service to diversity in literature, as they approach subjects (neurodiversity and infertility) that are not spoken about enough within books. Pine’s fragmented, stream-of-consciousness writing style reflected the protagonists’ own thought processes, but I did find myself either lost or skimming because some parts were so tangential. I also didn’t connect much to Ruth’s story; the blurb gives you very little information, and I was expecting an assessment of a marriage in crisis – which there is, it centres almost solely on the need/inability to have biological children. As a happily childless woman who plans to stay so, I wasn’t much interested. However, this is more of a “me” problem than one with the book. Considering its length, I would’ve liked to have seen Ruth and her husband consider alternative routes too – they never address the fact that there are many ways to be a mother without carrying the child yourself. I’m torn between wanting to celebrate the unusual format and subject matter/s, and knowing that I wasn’t in any hurry to pick it up.

This is the most exquisite novel, set over one day in Dublin from the point of view of two women. Ruth is a counselor whose marriage is on the verge of splitting up after so many failed cycles of IVF, and Pen is a neurodivergent teenager, braving a protest for climate change with her best friend and crush, Alice.

The comparison that jumps to mind isn't Ulysses, though the detailed picture Pine draws of the city centre is certainly as vivid, but Mrs Dalloway, which Pen obliquely references during the book. The full immersion into the two characters minds, with absolutely no distance or barriers between the reader and these streams of consciousness, is reminiscent of the mesmerising waves of Clarissa and Septimus' thoughts as their bodies weave their way around each other in central London.

Pine has taken several strands from her debut, a collection of personal essays called Notes to Self, that she weaves through her narrative. The most obvious is the subject of infertility, grieving for unborn or lost children, and the toll this struggle has on the body, the mind, and not only the relationships between prospective parents but with the people around them. She also raises new ideas about climate change, activism and what life is like for a young person trying to gain some sort of control over this frightening reality, as well as navigating her differences from everyone around her, life and a city that seems all too much for her to handle. My only criticism is I loved the final scene from Ruth's point of view and I would have preferred that over the actual ending, but it's still a fitting end to a brilliant novel.

Pine's novel, for all its seemingly free floating thoughts through the streets of Dublin, is grounded completely in the body, or rather two bodies moving through the same tangible space on one seemingly insignificant day. I read this book compulsively but feel that it's one to return to again and again, to slow down and pick apart, and still then marvel at how Pine is really in a league of her own.

Better known as an essay-writer mining aspects of her own life, Emilie Pine’s now turned her attention to fiction. Her debut novel unfolds over a single day in Dublin, in 2019. Pine’s influences range from the obvious Ulysses and Mrs Dalloway to the lesser-known David Park’s Travelling in a strange land. Her story centres on two seemingly-unconnected women, Ruth who’s 43 and a therapist, and schoolgirl Pen who’s 16 and working out how to negotiate her world. Pine’s chapters move between voices, primarily Ruth’s and Pen’s but also those of people close to them.

Ruth’s narrative builds on Pine’s own experiences with infertility and miscarriage, as well as her research while writer-in-residence at Dublin’s National Maternity Hospital. These experiences have shaken Ruth to the core, leaving her future with husband Aidan uncertain. As she awaits Aidan’s return from a business trip, Ruth’s thoughts are filled with doubts and confusion about what’s next for them. On her journeys through the city, she crosses paths with Pen who’s skipped school to take part in a climate change protest. Pen’s autistic and grappling with what that means for her, she’s also in the throes of first love, and part of her plan for this day is to declare her feelings for her schoolfriend Alice.

Pine’s tightly focused on her characters’ inner thoughts, their self-doubts, miscommunication or sense of being alone - the very things that also link them. But she also presents, particularly in Ruth’s sections, a striking portrait of Dublin itself. It’s a very fluid, readable piece but it’s also slightly uneven. Although there are definite modernist tinges and some excellent passages, there are a number of elements that didn’t quite work for me here. Despite the nods to Woolf and Dickinson, this is ultimately quite a conventional book, that at times reminded me more of work by writers like Maggie O’Farrell and Tessa Hadley. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s also not quite to my taste. There’s also a rather earnest feel to Pen’s episodes, an impression that Pen’s very much a research-based representation of neuro-atypicality: the depiction of her behaviour, her interests in climate change, as well as other traits – suggestive of well-known figures like Greta Thunberg – leans a little towards cliché at times. So, for me, it’s a well-meaning, carefully-constructed portrayal but not always a particularly smooth, or entirely convincing, one.

So overall, I had mixed feelings about this, it’s a fairly well-crafted piece but the pieces don’t always fit together as well as they might, not unusual in a first novel. However, it’s also quite gripping, there are some outstanding passages, some more-than-promising prose, as well as an admirable commitment to dealing with emotionally complex material.

EMILIE PINE – RUTH PEN ****

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The action is set over one day in Dublin. Ruth’s marriage is in crisis, and Pen, a teenager, is desperate to tell her best friend Alice her true feelings. Both women carry very distinctive voices, especially Pen. Nothing much happens, in the terms of external action, it is mainly in their thoughts and snatches of conversation. But whenever I put down the book, I found myself wanting to return to read more.

Oddly, given the title, the two women barely meet, and then only by chance: it is not their story, but their individual stories, and that of Pen and Alice and Ruth and Aidan. There are no chapters, just headings of different times throughout the day, with each time told from the point of view of one character. Towards the end there is some head hopping, which can be confusing, but nothing to spoil my enjoyment.

Sometimes slow burners have more impact than wham bam, and this is the case here. Totally recommended.

Ruth and Pen is an absolute delight to read. It plays out over a single day flipping between the two main characters. Ruth, a woman in her late forties, yearning for a family following a number of unsuccessful rounds of IVF. As a result, her marriage is straining. Pen, a young girl trying to navigate her teenage years as queer and autistic.

Emilie depicts their stories beautifully, seamlessly switching between the two as the day plays out, independently. Throughout the book I kept expecting their lives to cross in a significant way but it is a very brief and lovely moment in the end and is all that was needed.

I found myself completely drawn into both these women's lives, feeling empathy and compassion for both, feeling their pain, longing for things to go their way. Emilie takes us through a range of emotions the characters are feeling, leaving us totally invested.

I was looking forward to reading this as I loved 'Notes to Self' and it was every bit as as good as I hoped. Initially I found it hard to get into and I left it and then started again and quickly got engrossed. I liked the alternating POV's because both were equally engrossing. While I identified more with Ruth, I found Pen really intriguing and very interesting. The other characters, like Alice, Claire and Aidan were also well-rounded. Considering it was all just one day, the book had a good flow to it. The ordinariness of a day is captured so well but without every being dull. Definitely one to recommend!

Made me tear up! I wasn't sure what to expect going into this - I really wasn't a fan of Pine's essay collection - but I thought this was such a gentle, patient, intelligent, lovely book. Ruth and Aidan's storyline is so well done, and Pen's characterisation could have gone so awry, but as someone on the autism spectrum myself, I really liked her character - she's not depicted patronisingly, but she's also not some inspiration-porn superwoman, and she's not desexualised, either. I thought Alice's characterisation was a little inconsistent, but that's pretty much my only complaint.

Ruth & Pen is a luminous, deeply affecting novel by one of the most compelling writers working in Ireland today. Set over the course of one day in Dublin in 2019, Pine's debut novel treads some similar paths to her essay collection, Notes To Self, but never feels like an extension of the same stories. The two main characters are Ruth - late thirties, frazzled, recently finished another cycle of IVF that ended in despair and trapped in a crumbling marriage. Pen is a sixteen-year-old neurodivergent queer girl, setting out on a big day in town with her best friend slash love interest. The two women's lives intersect only briefly - at a climate protest - over the course of the novel.

I adored. this. book. Pine's writing style is so effortless, sliding between POVs easily as she's crafted two very distinct voices in Ruth & Pen. The two are at very different points in their lives, with very different worries, but to Pine's credit it never feels like two different stories - they fit together really well. Pen's primary concerns are the environment and fitting in - pretty relatable ones, if you ask me - but they're made all the trickier by her autism, which is respectfully portrayed with plenty of nuance from Pine. Pen reflects at one point that she will be "normal if it kills her" - a desire many will relate to and one that broke my heart a little for a character who is, ultimately, a bit out of step with the world. But Pen's outlook and personality are so gorgeous - she's so kind, so strong, so filled with love - that it's impossible not to fall madly in love with her.

Ruth is a different kettle of fish altogether. She is having an objectively awful time - after 3 rounds of IVF, she has said no more, and her husband disagrees. Teetering on the edge of a precipice, the couple take some time apart and Ruth's narrative is a swirling vortex of heartbreak and rage, it's raw and really tough to read. Pine has written about IVF and infertility in the past and she's a very sensitive voice on it - it's so devastating to have this account of the impact of not having kids for some. Both narratives are deeply intimate - almost uncomfortably so, at times - and tender, too.

It's not just the character work that's so impressive here. Dublin is so lovingly evoked, so richly described, that it felt like spending a day there. Pine's commentary on the climate crisis - spoken through Pen - left me with chills and a new commitment to trying to save us all. It's a really rich book, with a lot of say on so many things, but it never feels overstuffed or like "an issues book".

Ruth & Pen is a deeply compassionate book, clear-eyed about two women's foibles and faults but loving them anyway. I couldn't get enough.

In her tender and intimate debut novel 'Ruth & Pen', Emilie Pine gives a day in two lives which explores themes including relationships, the female body and neurodiversity with great sensitivity.

The novel takes place on 7th October 2019 in Dublin. Ruth is a therapist whose marriage to Aidan may be over. Pen is a thoughtful and intelligent 16-year-old with autism who is planning to spend the day at an Extinction Rebellion protest with her best friend, Alice, with whom she hopes to become more than friends. Ruth and Pen's stories largely unfold independently of each other, although they have a couple of brief but meaningful encounters which avoid feeling contrived. We also spend some time with Aidan, Alice and Pen's mother Claire.

The device of following different character's lives across a single day in a single city dates back to 'Ulysses' and 'Mrs Dalloway', the latter of which Pine references, and has been employed by plenty of writers since, but that's probably because it usually works. I certainly found this a totally absorbing novel and felt very invested in both Ruth and Pen's lives. Pine's characters are all drawn with real compassion and generosity which prevent the novel from becoming overly bleak even when it deals with themes such as miscarriage and self-harm, At the same time, Pine avoids becoming clichéd and sentimental - I found the climax of the novel deeply moving and redemptive but not in the way that I expected.

Overall, I found this a beautiful novel full of pain, love and healing. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

This is a succulent little book. 'Ruth & Pen' is timid yet doughty, spiritful and unshrinking.

The eponymous characters serve to relate such wet-hearted honesty, and Emilie Pine's vision is something out of the ordinary. Her image-working imbues workaday acts, matters, incidents, with tremendous meaning and all of it rings true.

Pine should be most proud of her even, open and demystifying representation of women's experiences of what it means to be able or not able to bear children; and of women's experiences of homosexuality and asexuality.

I was pleased that Pine shifts her females' concerns away from women-in-Ireland's experiences of being a woman in Ireland, as she lets Ruth, Pen, Claire, Alice, Lisa, Soraya, Jo, and the 'woman-therapist' stand as universal types, rather to explore the tiny messes and the big messes of living.

Emilie Pine traces Dublin like the lines on your palm; I have no doubt that I'll think of Ruth the next time I'm in the National Gallery of Ireland, and of Pen when I'm next by the Hugh Lane.

My sincere gratitude to Hamish Hamilton for the opportunity to read and review an ARC via Netgalley.

This was actually a good book, such a good story and told so well , very sad in places but but I was glued to it …

Ruth and Pen is a beautiful, intense story set on a single summer’s day in Dublin 2019 where two unconnected women, who are at entirely places in their lives, cross paths at a climate change protest.
We first meet Ruth, a 40-something therapist getting ready for work and worrying about her marriage which is the rocks after the stresses of a number of failed IVF cycles. Her husband hasn’t come home and she doesn’t know if there is a way forward for them anymore?
Pen is a neuro divergent teenage girl who is about to have the best day of her life. She’s off to a climate change march with her best friend Alice, who she wants to be more than friend’s with but is struggling with how to express her feelings! Pen is a fascinating young woman who wants to be normal but struggles to form friendships, communicate and needs routine to function. There is a description of horrific bullying by her “school friends” which shocked me and you just feel so happy for her that since then she has formed this bond with Alice. Pen’s greatest support though is her incredible mother who just shines in her ability to support her daughter and is the best possible ally Pen could have.
Emilie Pine works her magic in how she expresses the impact of IVF on Ruth and Aiden’s marriage. It is so powerfully conveyed and really had me tearing up as both characters deal with the range of emotions from anger to grief at a life that won’t be for them.
This is an incredibly moving book which I read in one sitting as it pulled me in right from the get-go. It is due to be published on 5 May 2022 and I would highly recommend getting your hands on it as it’s an absolutely beautifully told story and a really authentic depiction of Dublin.
Many thanks to @netgalley, @penguinbooksuk and @vikingbooksuk for this ARC in return for my honest review.