In 1960s Italy, a family secret rips a teenage girl's world apart, only for her to discover its true meaning decades later.
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.
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 - Eleanor Catton, Booker prize-winning author of The Luminaries and Birnam Wood
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 - Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist
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 - Emma Donoghue, author of Room
Sarah Moss is one of the best writers working today, and this might be her best book yet. A wise and tender novel about birth, ballet and belonging, it captivated me completely - Bobby Palmer, author of Isaac and the Egg
I devoured Ripeness, thrilling at the world Moss brings to life and the characters who inhabit it. What a delicious novel - Literary Review
The sublime author Sarah Moss returns with Ripeness . . . Glorious - Vogue
