Ripeness

In Moss’s layered and poignant latest (after the memoir My Good Bright Wolf), an aging divorced Englishwoman reflects on the nature of home and family while living in Ireland. Edith enjoys a casual relationship with a German potter and a fulfilling friendship with long-married local woman Maebh in County Clare. Edith’s story is informed by alternating flashbacks to the mid-1960s, when she comes of age in northern England and is dispatched by her mother, a WWII refugee from France, to assist her older sister, Lydia, a professional ballerina, who is about to give birth in rural Italy. With the paternal details of Lydia’s pregnancy shrouded in secrecy, Edith busies herself with Lydia’s physical and emotional care as she vows to give the baby up for adoption. In the present day, Meabh receives a letter from an American man claiming to be her half brother, but is ambivalent about inviting him to visit. Meanwhile, Edith rues the man’s claim on a land to which he’s never been while she eternally feels like a “stranger,” especially given the rising anti-refugee sentiment. Moss’s characters are delightfully complex, giving shape to the narrative’s meditation on belonging. This leaves readers with much to chew on. Agent: Jennifer Carlson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Sept.)