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Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Novel
by Meg Mason
The "brilliant" (Ann Patchett) and much beloved author of the critically acclaimed Sorrow and Bliss returns with a tender and hilarious novel about heartbreak and the journey from isolation and loneliness towards love.
Sophie Pattison loves books. And as well as a dream job at a local book festival, she has a husband she adores, a lifelong best friend, Emma, and a brother she's always been close to. Which makes you wonder why since Christmas Sophie has been living alone, estranged from Emma, avoiding her brother, and about to be fired.
Now it feels like the only thing she has left is reading. When Sophie re-discovers an author she first read in her twenties, the words on the page reach her in a new way—becoming both solace and company. Devouring every one of her novels, Sophie begins to dream of meeting her, knowing she never will. But what if she did? What if, by then, the author feels like a friend? What if, for Sophie, it feels almost like love?
In this much anticipated novel, Meg Mason captures the heartache and dark humor of our relationships in all their complexity, giving us a story about the power of connection and an ode to the inexplicable nature of the human heart.
"So smart, so funny, so moving. Mason has done it again, this time using the behind-the-scenes mechanics at a literary festival to reveal the complexity of loneliness and how one woman attempts to dig herself out. I absolutely loved it." —Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
"The lucky reader of Sophie, Standing There peers at the world through Sophie's eyes, and wonders how her life shaped this view. When the answers are revealed—about her marriage, her childhood, the gaps in her understanding—we experience a kind of wholeness with her. Or at least the possibility of wholeness. I loved Sophie, and I love Meg Mason's brain and the strange, wonderful, funny stories she gives us." —Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello, Beautiful and Dear Edward
This information about Sophie, Standing There was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Meg Mason is the author of Sorrow and Bliss, which became an international bestseller after it was first published in Australia. Winner of the British Book Industry Book of the Year, and shortlisted for the Women's Prize, it has since been translated into more than 30 languages. Her first career was in journalism, beginning at the Times of London, later writing for Vogue, Elle, GQ, Sunday Style, and The New Yorker's Daily Shouts and Murmurs. Born in New Zealand, she lives in Sydney with her husband and two daughters.
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