an astonishingly fine book (Dublin Review of Books)

light on its feet and goes in deep (Deborah Levy)

Wry, shocking, winningly frank... What is most striking about the collection is its universality. [These stories] urgently need to be told. Pine does so with an honesty and vigour that are always uplifting (Guardian)

This compelling memoir crystallises the human experience and gives words to the feelings you never knew you had. (Sunday Times Style)

A truly brilliant writer... A great book (Evening Standard)

A brilliant collection. (David Nicholls)

an exceptional collection of essays...Pine's sharp, unadorned writing style allows the unobscured truths to rise to the surface. (Refinery29)

What resonates is Pine's articulation of the small, cumulative frustrations of life as a woman. (FT)

Have you read this year's word-of-mouth literary phenomenon?!

THE EXTRAORDINARY #1 BESTSELLER

'Fiercely feminist, fascinating. I have recommended this to several people. And I'm doing the same here' Sunday Times

'Do not read this book in public: it will make you cry' Anne Enright

'Unsparing, formidable, raw. The kind of book you want to give everyone' Irish Times

'Complex, accessible, thoughtful... You will love these essays' Pandora Sykes, The High Low


'Every line pulses with the pain and joy and complexity of an extraordinary life' Mark O'Connell

'I am afraid of being the disruptive woman. And of not being disruptive enough. I am afraid. But I am doing it anyway.'

In this dazzling debut, Emilie Pine speaks to the business of living as a woman in the 21st century - its extraordinary pain and its extraordinary joy. Courageous, humane and uncompromising, she writes with radical honesty on birth and death, on the grief of infertility, on caring for her alcoholic father, on taboos around female bodies and female pain, on sexual violence and violence against the self. Devastatingly poignant and profoundly wise - and joyful against the odds - Notes to Self offers a portrait not just of its author but of a whole generation.

Emilie Pine is Associate Professor of Modern Drama at University College Dublin, Ireland. She has published widely as an academic and critic. Notes to Self is her first collection of personal essays and the winner of The Butler Literary Award 2018.