From the bestselling author of Summerwater comes Sarah Moss's best novel yet: a story of love, loss and belonging that moves between 1960s Italy and modern day Ireland.

Moving from 60s Italy to contemporary Ireland, Ripeness is a breathtaking story of love and the search for belonging from Sarah Moss, bestselling author of Summerwater.

'Moss makes every moment count' - The Sunday Times
'The achievement of a lifetime' - Jessie Burton
'Luminous' - Financial Times
'A book of lasting pleasures' - Eleanor Catton
'A powerful and beautifully written story of family, friendship and identity' - Guardian

On the brink of adulthood and just out of school, Edith finds herself travelling to rural Italy. She has been sent by her mother with strict instructions: to see her sister, ballet dancer Lydia, through the final weeks of her pregnancy, help at the birth and then make a phone call which will change all of their lives.

Decades later, happily divorced and newly energized, Edith is living in contentment and comfort in Ireland. When her best friend Méabh receives a call from an American man claiming to be her brother, Méabh must decide if she will meet him, and Edith finds herself plunged back into her own past and the story of the baby she once knew and loved.

'Tender and rueful . . . Sarah Moss is a marvel of insight and eloquence' - Emma Donoghue
'One of our greatest living writers' - Katherine May, author of Wintering

Praise for Sarah Moss:
'Throws much contemporary writing into the shade' - Hilary Mantel
‘One of our very best contemporary novelists’ - Independent
'A brilliant mind' - The Guardian
'Moss has quietly been putting out some of the most interesting and carefully sculpted novels of recent years' - Financial Times
'One of the finest contemporary writers working in Britain today' - Stylist
'Is Sarah Moss the best British writer never nominated for the Booker?' - Daily Mail
'Nothing escapes her sly humour and brilliant touch' - Jessie Burton
'The most brilliant writer. She deserves to win all the prizes' - Joanna Trollope

"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

"Impressive" - The Independent

"Sarah Moss is a master of the ticking clock. Her novels thrum with tension . . . as the climax rushes towards us, Moss makes every moment count" - The Sunday Times

"Beautifully crafted . . . absorbing and moving" - Daily Mail

"An extended meditation on what home or belonging might mean in a period of disruption and displacement . . . Moss perfectly judges the prickly absolutism of the younger Edith . . . unfailingly spare and alert . . . captivating" - The Irish Times

"Evocative . . . Immensely moving - and this story feels very much like life . . . This novel lingers so strongly in the mind" - Harper's Bazaar

"A powerful and beautifully written story of family, friendship and identity" - The Guardian

"An expansive, expressive tale of family, history and ballet, this is illuminated by pin-sharp imagery and rueful self-awareness" - Mail on Sunday