Description
'I am afraid of being the disruptive woman. And of not being disruptive enough. I am afraid. But I am doing it anyway.'
In this dazzling debut, Emilie Pine speaks powerfully from her painful personal experience - on the emotional labour of caring for her alcoholic father, on the unspeakable grief of miscarriage and infertility, on the social taboos around menstrual blood and female pain, on the ways young women use their own bodies as a weapon against themselves. Courageous, humane and uncompromising, devastatingly poignant and yet never self-pitying, these pieces investigate and challenge society's assumptions around pain, strength, resilience and identity, ultimately embracing joy and hope in the business of living.
Radically honest and fiercely intelligent, the word-of-mouth #1 bestseller on modern womanhood and coming-of-age.
About the Author
Emilie Pine is Professor of Modern Drama at University College Dublin, Ireland. She has published widely as an academic and critic. Her first collection of personal essays Notes to Self won the Butler Literary Award, the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award, and Book of the Year 2018 at the Irish Book Awards. Ruth & Pen is her first novel.
Reviews
An astonishingly fine book * Dublin Review of Books *
Light on its feet and goes in deep * Deborah Levy *
Wry, shocking, winningly frank . . . What is most striking about the collection is its universality. [These stories] urgently need to be told. Pine does so with an honesty and vigour that are always uplifting * Guardian *
This compelling memoir crystallises the human experience and gives words to the feelings you never knew you had * Sunday Times Style *
A truly brilliant writer . . . A great book * Evening Standard *
A brilliant collection * David Nicholls *
An exceptional collection of essays . . . Pine's sharp, unadorned writing style allows the unobscured truths to rise to the surface * Refinery29 *
What resonates is Pine's articulation of the small, cumulative frustrations of life as a woman * FT *
Book Information
ISBN 9780241986226
Author Emilie Pine
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 160g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm * 18mm
