New Zealander Meg Mason is the bestselling author of the 2021 book Sorrow and Bliss. A big-hearted story about mental health, marriage, family and love, and Mason’s first novel to be published in the UK, the book was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and won Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards.
Mason’s new novel Sophie, Standing There brings her trademark humour and tenderness to a new literary-focused setting. Sophie is a freelance sound technician whose job involves spotlighting famous authors while remaining largely invisible herself. When her personal life begins to unravel, she finds comfort in the books of celebrated author Lilac Dunne, a woman who Sophie has never met but with whom she quickly forms an intense attachment. A novel about loneliness and intimacy, Sophie, Standing There has earned praise from Ann Patchett and Gillian Anderson.
