Just wonderful! So much is in this tender, beautifully crafted book. I have already given copies as presents, I want to share it with everyone!

Ripeness by Sarah Moss tells the story of Edith across two timelines, as a teenager in the 1960s supporting her pregnant sister in Italy and as a divorced woman in present day rural Ireland. Motherhood has long been a dominant theme in Moss’ fiction, whereas migration becomes the main focus here, exploring Edith’s identity as a daughter of Holocaust survivors. After a series of short and brutal novellas in recent years with more direct social commentary, Ripeness is broader and more reflective in tone and seems to represent a new and more ambitious era for Moss’s fiction, perhaps a response to publishing her memoir My Good Bright Wolf last year. Many thanks to Picador for sending me a review copy via NetGalley.

Ripeness is a timely book on immigration and identity, national identity and belonging. A very poignant and necessary read in today’s world.

It explores the long lineage of immigration in family histories especially forced immigration where historically people were left with no choice but to flee for their lives. Moss excellently connects the history of Jewish people leaving Europe during WW2 to the immigration we see today as a result from conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, and explores what identity means when you have mixed heritage and settle in another country.

The novel flits back and forth between Edith, born to an English father and French-Jewish mother, as an elderly woman in the present day and her sixteen year old self sent to Italy in the sixties to help her sister give birth. I much preferred the sections where Edith was older compared to younger, but I put that down to those passages speaking more to current society. I also don’t usually mind books without speech marks but this one I struggled with and found myself getting confused easily at who was saying what. However, overall, Ripeness is beautifully written and I found it to be, at times, a powerful read.

As always with Sarah Moss, exceptional writing and storytelling. I enjoy a dual narrative and this one worked well for me and the historical one was heartbreaking and evocative. The question of how one can find a sense of belonging in a place that is not your place of birth (which Moss also tackles in Names For The Sea) takes on fresh relevance with reference to contemporary refugees. Parts err towards the didactic, while other sections are incredibly sensitive and nuanced. I enjoyed it very much.

Always love Sarah Moss and this feels a slight move away from her previous books. Still steeped in melancholy and fear of the unknown but the wider settings add colour.

Sarah Moss's latest novel 'Ripeness' tells a story of growing up, of family and belonging. It is set between two timelines. In the 60's seventeen year old Edith is being sent to Italy by her mother to support her older sister giving birth to a baby which ends up being adopted.
Now in her seventies Edith is living a quiet life in the west of Ireland and ponders about her youth while helping her friend Méabh with a personal matter.
Sarah Moss's writing style is exquisite. She manages to say so much with a fluid stream of consciousness and doesn't shy away from topics like immigration and adoption. I found her musings about home and what to call home if you are not living in the place you were born of particular interest.
This is a highly recommended multilayered novel with great character and location descriptions in beautiful writing.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Picador Books for the ARC.

In her 70's Edith writes a letter to her nephew who was adopted at birth. Ripeness describes the circumstances of his birth whilst also detailing Edith's life as a septunian living in a remote part of Ireland.
First and foremost this was an enjoyable read , Moss writes vivid characters, you can see the teen ballerinas living it up in 60's Italy despite the reason for them being there was one of the company was in "trouble", you can also Edith and her friends wild swimming in the bitter Atlantic wrinkles and all. Moss touches on a lot of issues in the book, anti-semitism, sexism, ageism , the horror of enforced adoptions but apart from the adoption being a key story none are explored in depth . In some ways this felt a little shallow but in others it was such a good story that if she'd started exploring issues it might have detracted from book.

3 stars is my bench mark for a good book, a solid read, but it didn't touch me enough for more. I might not remember the book , but I’ll definitely be adding any other books by the author to my too be read pile

Such an engaging story of belonging! Her writing is beautiful and now I am definitely diving into her backlist!

Not as dark or despairing as other Moss books, this follows Edith in present day Ireland as she looks back to 1960s Italy. Back then, as a 17 year old on an enforced ‘gap year‘ before Oxford, she was sent to look after her sister who was due to give birth.

Ripeness is certainly an apt description of this book - gorgeous writing and descriptions - I loved it!

Some lovely passages which were a delight to read but overall I found the book too hard going. Depressing in parts or just overdone.

I'm a big fan of Sarah Moss' writing and enjoyed this new offering. The journey through the different points in time and the character development was great.

With thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

The narrative is told in chapters which alternate between first person narration by 17-year-old Edith and third person narration by the same Edith at the age of 73. Young Edith has been sent from the family farm in the Midlands to a villa in Italy to help her unwed sister who is about to have a baby (father undisclosed) which will be given up for adoption.

At the other end of her life, older Edith, now divorced and living on the Irish west coast, thinks back on the choices and personality traits which brought her here. She is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who fled to England, the only one of her family to survive. Edith's mother never properly settled into her life as a farmer's wife and mother to two daughters; likewise Edith has inherited a similar distrust of settling too much. With her family history and an adult life in Dublin with an Irish husband, against a background of local unrest at an asylum seekers' hotel, she reflects on the nature of being a refugee, of belonging - or not. Her friend in the village is dealing with the discovery out of the blue of an older brother who had been given up for adoption to American parents, and it slowly becomes clear that this has prompted Edith to confront long-buried feelings about her own sister's baby.

As an immigrant myself, and a woman who has always been at best ambivalent about having children, I found a lot that resonated in this book. Edith is not an especially pleasant character but she is true to herself and owns her choices and attitudes and philosophy with a level of clear-sightedness that I could admire. This is one to read slowly and think about. Recommended.

As expected from Sarah Moss the writing is assured, the story offers a twisting look at human relationships and dextrously manages leaps in time. I've enjoyed her other books and enjoyed this too!

A very engaging story about belonging, switching between Italy in the 1960s and the Irish coast today. We follow Edith, who as a 17 year old is sent to Lake Como to take care of her pregnant sister. And in the alternating chapter we see Edith again, now in her seventies, living in Ireland.

So what does belonging mean? Does it have to do with nationality? Family history? Or DNA? Feeling at home? Being accepted by the community? Can you belong when you remain an outsider?

Sarah Moss' writing is excellent as always. I like that she always has interesting observations that are completely naturally embedded in the narrative.

Sarah Moss is a must-read author for me, and while Ripeness wasn’t my favourite of hers (that title is held by Ghost Wall or Bodies of Light), it is nevertheless an accomplished and beautiful novel.

A joy from start to finish. This is a slow read, but in Moss's style, which we are all coming to appreciate more with each new work. Characters are well drawn with just enough pace to keep us interested. May there be many more books like this from Moss - rapidly becoming a 'one to watch'. Highly recommended

I absolutely loved this book. Yes, some people will think the lack of punctuation is a challenge, but for me, once I got into the flow and rhythm of the book it faded into the background and the words came to life on the page. Following Edith’s backstory as a seventeen year old sent to be with her pregnant sister in rural Italy, as well as her mother’s family history, alongside her present self in her seventies, now divorced with a lover in Ireland and her best friend Maebh who has been contacted by an unknown brother, the sudden realisation that the stories are about to collide hits you with such an emotional and profound feeling. I was absolutely swept away by this novel. A mixture of coming of age, family ties, secrets, friendships, love and loss, for me this is a beautiful and tender telling of the sad reality of unmarried mothers whose babies were sent away for adoption.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for a review.

Absolutely delicious. This is a remarkable and very enjoyable book from start to finish. I love Sarah Moss's work and this is no exception, The story runs from Edith's point of view on a dual timeline - she is seventeen, about to go up to Oxford and is called by her mother to take care of her dancer sister who is about to give birth and give away her baby in an isolated Italian villa. And she is seventy - living a happily divorced life in Ireland when a friend, Maebh has a long-lost brother turn up to claim his birth family. Across the storylines Moss examines how people's attitudes are changed over time, the grief and liberation of being in a position to give up a child, and her own survivor's guilt about the situation her sister found herself in.

There is so much to unpack as Edith reflects on her life, her family and friends, and it all held together by the most precise language and sensory descriptions that make you want to linger and reread again and again. So beautiful and just excellent.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

I really wanted to get into this book. The story sounded very interesting however the style of writing threw me off completely.

I managed to read about 1/3 of the book and still was confused of the story line.

I am sure people would love this one however it was not for me.

I have never read this author before, but I was immersed in it immediately unfortunately my Kindle needed charging before I could finish it so I was forced to read it over two days.
Where to start? This novel is both poignant and yet it shares situations that many are having to face today. It starts in rural Ireland where Edith, the heroine, lived in her early years on a farm, but then the reader is shown how her life is affected by the Nazi regime which has her French,Jewish mother and family murdered in Belsen, We then have glimpses between Edith in her late teens and Edith at seventy. Her relationships with her older sister who is a ballet dancer, her father a farmer in Derbyshire and her lover, Gunter. who she meets in her seventies. This is an altogether stunning novel and I thank #NetGalley, #PanMacmillan #Picador for offering me the chance to read and review this book.