Ruth & Pen

Brilliant, rich, gentle, heart aching, intelligent, swift.

Ruth and Pen follows two women separately through a single day in Dublin. Ruth is grappling with the potential end of her marriage following a long and difficult road of failed IVF attempts; Pen is a young neurodivergent girl determined to have the perfect day with her maybe more-than-friend Alice. The multiple POV style is executed perfectly here, where each chapter is short enough to let both characters equally shine.

I found this difficult to get into through the first half. Emilie Pine writes almost breathlessly, like I can picture her sitting at her desk in the candlelight just going manic on her keyboard. And I found it worked for me in the second half because all of this suspension had been built up, but diving straight into her quick paced, thought-like narrative from the beginning was hard. But she definitely makes up for it.

Pine explores themes of love, neurodivergence, loss, climate change, sexuality, fertility, the female body, the works. And she does it well. And it's Irish. Basically, I'm searching for anything even remotely resembling Sally Rooney.