Ripeness: The most-anticipated novel of 2025

A stunning new novel of coming-of-age and growing old, from Sunday Times bestseller Sarah Moss

‘Tender and rueful . . . Sarah Moss is a marvel of insight and eloquence' - Emma Donoghue ‘Her work is as close to perfect as a novelist’s can be’ - The Times 'Throws much contemporary writing into the shade' - Hilary Mantel 'One of our greatest living writers' - Katherine May

It is the 60s 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 seal this baby’s fate, and his mother’s.

Decades later, happily divorced and newly energized, Edith is living a life of contentment and comfort in Ireland. When her best friend Maebh receives a call from an American man claiming to be her brother, Maebh must decide if she will meet him, and she asks Edith for help.

Ripeness by Sarah Moss is an extraordinary novel about familial love and the communities we create, about migration and new beginnings, and about what it is to have somewhere to belong.

Praise for Sarah Moss: ‘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

© 2025 Picador (Lydbog): 9781529035513

Release date

Lydbog: 22. maj 2025