Ripeness

The perfect book club summer read from the Sunday Times bestselling author.

In 1960s Italy, a family secret rips a teenage girls 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, Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries
Powerful and beautifully written – The Guardian
Endlessly intriguing - The Observer

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 finally free. But with the arrival of an unexpected message, Edith must face the truth of that long-ago summer, and the secret she has carried for a lifetime.

Tender and rueful’ – Emma Donoghue, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Room
A delicious novel – Literary Review
Sublime . . . glorious – Vogue
Luminous – Financial Times
Beautifully crafted . . . absorbing and moving – Daily Mail