Member Reviews
I started & finished this beautiful book within 24 hours. Emilie Pines debut collection of essays ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง was a favourite of mine and ๐๐ถ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ is her debut novel. โฃ
โฃ
Ruth & Pen (Penelope) are two unconnected women living in Dublin. Ruth is a counsellor, married to Aidan. Theyโve just completed another unsuccessful round of IVF. Their marriage is under strain & Ruth fears Aidan will leave her. Pen is a neurodivergent 16 year old, who wishes she could communicate with the world via emojis as โ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅโ. She has a different way of thinking & experiencing the world. She is also in love with her best friend Alice. The book is a day in the life of both women as their paths briefly cross during a climate change protest in Dublin city centre. โฃ
โฃ
Pen is a riveting character. She finds it impossible to form relationships & communicate with her peers. Her life is driven by routine. Ruth & Aidan are losing more of each other as each IVF cycle fails. Both women reach a crisis point in their relationships. โฃ
โฃ
To say I loved this book is an understatement. Pine writes candidly about the meaning of love, pain & motherhood & living in an unaccommodating world. She really gets inside the head of Ruth & Pen to show us the world from their perspective: a woman desperate to be a mother in a world full of mothers & babies & a teenager who only wants to be accepted as she is. โฃ
โฃ
She writes in a fluid, eloquent style, never overblown & always controlled, finely tuned into the interior world of both protagonists. Howโs this for a line? โ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐จ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏโ๐ต ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บโ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏโ This is a deeply moving, emotional, cathartic novel & is due to be published on 5 May 2022. A book to treasure. 5โญ๏ธ. โฃ
โฃ
Many thanks to @netgalley, @penguinbooksuk and @vikingbooksuk for this advance ebook in return for my honest review.
Ruth & Pen โ Emilie Pine (Hamish Hamilton, 2022)
It is October 7th, 2019 in Dublin City. Ruth and Pen donโt know each other, but over the course of a single day they both struggle with love, communication and an unaccommodating world. Ruthโs marriage with Aidan is on the brink of collapse, while sixteen-year-old Pen is deeply unsure of herself as she grapples with her feelings for her friend, Alice.
What a gorgeous book. Emilie Pine effortlessly embodies these two characters, capturing Ruthโs quiet grief and Penโs racing thoughts in the most convincing way. Fertility, neurodivergence and communication breakdown jump out as the main themes. This book stands apart from Pineโs previous essay collection, Notes to Self, but her ability to capture grief, pain, and hope shines through in her debut novel.
Motherhood is a theme close to the authorโs heart, and she writes about it in such a painful, beautiful way; Ruth and Aidanโs fertility journey makes for truly harrowing reading. One of the quiet heroes of this novel is Penโs mother, Claire, whose love for her daughters wrapped me up in a warm blanket.
This story also made me reflect on the fleeting moments we have with strangers every single day; you never know the struggles, the joy, and the commonalities you share with the strangers you meet.
This book is a tender character study, full of gut-wrenching pain and love in all its various forms. Life can be hard, and this book celebrates the gentle bravery we show every day as we navigate the tough patches in our own lives.
Thanks to @netgalley for the ARC! Ruth & Pen will be available from May 5th, 2022.