Synopsis
In 1960s Italy, a family secret rips a teenage girl's world apart, only for her to discover its true meaning decades later.
'Moss makes every moment count' - The Sunday Times
'A book of lasting pleasures' - Eleanor Catton
'Powerful and beautifully written' - The Guardian
Just out of school and teetering on the brink of adulthood, Edith is sent alone to rural Italy. Her task is simple: support her sister Lydia, a brilliant but brittle ballet dancer, through the final weeks of her pregnancy. Once the baby is born, she is to make a phone call that will change all of their lives forever.
Decades later, Edith is living a contented life in Ireland, happily divorced and unexpectedly free. But when her friend Méabh receives an email from a stranger claiming to be her brother, everything shifts. As Méabh confronts a history she never knew she had, Edith must finally face the truth of that long-ago summer, and the secret she has carried for a lifetime.
‘Tender and rueful’ - Emma Donoghue
'A deliciou's novel' - Literary Review
'Sublime . . . glorious' - Vogue
'Luminous' - Financial Times
'Beautifully crafted . . . absorbing and moving' - Daily Mail
Details
22 May 2025
9781529035490Reviews
Sex and childbirth, emigrant and exile, the present and the past: Sarah Moss’s ambidextrous talent is evident on every page of this elegant novel. It is intelligent, but never disembodied; evocative, but never sentimental; honest, but never cruel. Ripeness is a book of tart and lasting pleasures
This book felt to me like I was reading the achievement of a lifetime, written by one of the best writers alive. Moving, unexpected, masterful, it is a story of stories, of belonging, of exits and entrances, and everything in between. Moss’s understanding of who her characters are is also her understanding of all of us. A beautiful, powerful read that echoed for me long after
Tender and rueful, Ripeness is a tale of being a foreigner that moves between 1960s Italy and 2020s Ireland, finding pain and bliss in both. Working at the height of her mature powers, Sarah Moss is a marvel of insight and eloquence
I devoured Ripeness, thrilling at the world Moss brings to life and the characters who inhabit it. What a delicious novel
