Ruth & Pen cover art

Ruth & Pen

The brilliant debut novel from the internationally bestselling author of Notes to Self

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Ruth & Pen

By: Emilie Pine
Narrated by: Jody O'Neill
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The brilliant debut novel from Emilie Pine, author of the international bestseller NOTES TO SELF

Dublin, 7 October 2019

One day, one city, two women: Ruth and Pen. Neither known to the other, but both asking themselves the same questions: how to be with others and how, when the world doesn't seem willing to make space for them, to be with themselves?

Ruth's marriage to Aidan is in crisis. Today she needs to make a choice - to stay or not to stay, to take the risk of reaching out, or to pull up the drawbridge.

For teenage Pen, today is the day the words will flow, and she will speak her truth to Alice, to ask for what she so desperately wants.

Deeply involving, poignant and radiantly intelligent, it is a portrait of the limits of grief and love, of how we navigate our inner and outer landscapes, and the tender courage demanded by the simple, daily quest of living.

© Emilie Pine 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Tear-jerking

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Critic reviews

Mesmerising . . . I became completely immersed in this emotional, intimate read
[An] uplifting debut novel . . . joy is a vital ingredient in Ruth & Pen
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
Impressive . . . Pine explores with great acuity and tenderness the restorative, capacious nature of love. A wise and lovely book
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
[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
Pine reinforces her reputation as one of the most empathetic writers in the country
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)
Moving and raw . . . Pine's ability to enter the heads of two such different characters is a sure sign of literary promise
This book is an intimate portrait of love and grief, and the tender, fragile courage required just to live each day
All stars
Most relevant
I really disliked how Pen and Alice's parts were narrated. Why was the voice always so weak and faint in comparison to the adults' voices? And the butchering of Latin... 😔 Did not enjoy the way the book was read.

Good story - badly narrated

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Narrator sounds like Amy Hibernian which put me off. Disliked the story and the way it was written.

Painful

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Although the idea is interesting, to look inside the two protagonist, the development was done in a manner that one becomes so bored that looses interest. Amazed that was done by a drama professor!

Not recommended

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