Ruth & Pen

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 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 Expand reviews