Sophie, Standing There
- Author Meg Mason
- Narrator Katherine Parkinson
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date 27 August 2026
- Run Time 9 hours and 18 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Love and relationships.
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What to expect
Bloomsbury presents Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason, read by Katherine Parkinson.
A sharp, funny and achingly tender story of obsession and loneliness from the award-winning, bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss
'So smart, so funny, so moving. I absolutely loved it' BONNIE GARMUS
'Heartbreaking, hilarious, and deeply hopeful. Mason is a dazzling talent' ANN PATCHETT
'Mason is brilliant ... A witty story of infatuation set in the literary world' GUARDIAN
_____
Sophie Pattison is a lovely person – warm, kind, relentlessly positive. She's cherished by her brother Laurie, adored by her best friend Emma and valued by her colleagues. Sometimes, it’s true, one day in her life can feel like the entire month of January. It’s also true she can go an entire day without speaking. But she's fine really. She spends her time alone reading, finding comfort in the pages of the books she devours.
Until one day she stumbles upon an author she hasn’t read in years. Her books, interviews and podcasts soon become a lifeline; every word is a solace, company she hasn't felt in so long. It's almost like love.
A lot like love. And Sophie would love to meet the author, although she never will obviously. In a way, thank goodness, because that would change everything. Sophie's entire life. Wouldn’t it?
Hilariously candid and raw, Sophie, Standing There is a bittersweet story of love, loneliness and finding connection in the most unlikely of places.
_____
'Heartwarming, tender and so funny ... Wonderful' GILLIAN ANDERSON
'I love Meg Mason’s brain and the strange, wonderful, funny stories she gives us' ANN NAPOLITANO
A sharp, funny and achingly tender story of obsession and loneliness from the award-winning, bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss
'So smart, so funny, so moving. I absolutely loved it' BONNIE GARMUS
'Heartbreaking, hilarious, and deeply hopeful. Mason is a dazzling talent' ANN PATCHETT
'Mason is brilliant ... A witty story of infatuation set in the literary world' GUARDIAN
_____
Sophie Pattison is a lovely person – warm, kind, relentlessly positive. She's cherished by her brother Laurie, adored by her best friend Emma and valued by her colleagues. Sometimes, it’s true, one day in her life can feel like the entire month of January. It’s also true she can go an entire day without speaking. But she's fine really. She spends her time alone reading, finding comfort in the pages of the books she devours.
Until one day she stumbles upon an author she hasn’t read in years. Her books, interviews and podcasts soon become a lifeline; every word is a solace, company she hasn't felt in so long. It's almost like love.
A lot like love. And Sophie would love to meet the author, although she never will obviously. In a way, thank goodness, because that would change everything. Sophie's entire life. Wouldn’t it?
Hilariously candid and raw, Sophie, Standing There is a bittersweet story of love, loneliness and finding connection in the most unlikely of places.
_____
'Heartwarming, tender and so funny ... Wonderful' GILLIAN ANDERSON
'I love Meg Mason’s brain and the strange, wonderful, funny stories she gives us' ANN NAPOLITANO
Critics Review
So smart, so funny, so moving – Mason has done it again – this time using behind the scenes of a literary festival to reveal the complexity of loneliness and how one woman attempts to dig herself out. I absolutely loved it
Sophie, Standing There is a moving examination of what it means to be alone in the world, and what it means to find connection. It is, by turns, heartbreaking, hilarious and deeply hopeful. Meg Mason is a dazzling talent.
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
Sophie, Standing There unfolds like a strange origami crane in reverse - so achingly tender and so brilliantly subtle that I could never put it down. The loneliness of our inner world and the quiet movement towards connection - nobody evokes it as breathtakingly as Meg Mason. And by ‘it’, I guess I mean simply being a person. Dazzling
Heartwarming, tender and so funny, Sophie, Standing There is a wonderful, bittersweet story of what it means to be truly, achingly lonely. I loved it
I feel like I know Meg Mason’s characters; they are relatable enough to be universal, but always have that edge or quirk that makes them unexpected - and completely compelling. Anyone who can make me sigh wistfully and snort with laughter in the same paragraph has my literary loyalty for life
A funny, poignant, quirky look at the entrancing nature of a parasocial relationship. I love Meg Mason’s sharpness and humour, she is the queen of the pithy one liner that stops you in your tracks
Truly inspired and original
It's raw, it's massively sad; it's hilariously funny and so epigrammatic that after writing down the novel’s pithily astute phrases, I realised I was almost writing out the whole book
Sophie, Standing There explores the layers of longing that mirror the deep, quiet ache of a life spent searching for a home that always feels just out of reach — a displacement where the only constant is the act of looking itself
So beautifully written and Sophie’s unexquisite world is described so exquisitely. I absolutely lived and breathed Sophie. Such a tender, funny, sad, moving, complicated, painful and yet hopeful book
A witty story of infatuation set in the literary world ... Mason is brilliant
Meg Mason is back with another introspective, heartfelt read
From the bestselling author of publishing sensation Sorrow and Bliss, comes this beautiful novel of love, loss and loneliness that is brimming with heart and humour and one of the finest drawn characters in fiction
From the author of runaway hit Sorrow & Bliss comes a story following Sophie Pattison whose life is full of love and meaning, apart from when it’s achingly lonely. A candid exploration of where and how we seek connection and what we’re really looking for when we search for love. Meg Mason is masterful when it comes to combining emotionally packed characters and story arcs with moments of pure hilarity
I found myself unable to put this book down, fascinated not only by Sophie and her extremely relatable feelings and experiences, but by Mason's exquisitely intimate storytelling … Meg Mason has created a novel that perfectly captures not a sad girl, but a woman moving through huge changes in a modern world
A raw account of a woman on the brink … and a deeply relatable, intimate read
This witty novel is a smart, metatextual affair, with thoughts on “sad girl fiction” and plenty of fun author cameos. (Although I have met George Saunders and I swear he’s too sweet to get stroppy about his microphone)
A funny, bittersweet story about solitude and connection
Meg Mason brings her signature warmth and wit to a story set in the literary world
Sophie, Standing There is bittersweet, its precise notes of humour and joy delivered from under a veil of persistent melancholy. Genuinely uplifting books for intelligent readers are rare, and this is one of them
A moving meditation on connection, loneliness and the allure of celebrity. Mason writes with an enviable lightness of touch, her prose rich with astute observations and razor-sharp wit ... I loved this
I ate this up in a day and could have stayed in Sophie's world even longer. Chuckling, cringing, and aching for Sophie. I felt completely in her skin, for better or worse. Wickedly funny and memorable
Funny in its very bones ... This is a real book-lover's book. Mason has again achieved the impressive feat of balancing sadness with humour to profoundly enjoyable effect. You won't forget Sophie in a hurry
A novel that is a dream to read - sentences that slip down, that simultaneously twist at the heartstrings and knock at the funnybone ... Deeply satisfying but never twee. There's a master intelligence at work in the architecture of this novel that feels very much like a magic trick. The writer watches us as we become immersed in her creation. The final chapter is a breathtaking breaking of the fourth wall, checking that capacity to imagine, tugging even tighter our entanglement with story and storytellers
Deeply engaging, raw and funny ... Captivatingly good
This novel shares its predecessor's wit and empathetic approachability
| Author | Meg Mason |
|---|---|
| Narrator | Katherine Parkinson |
| Duration | 9 hours and 18 minutes |
| Release Date | |
| ISBN | 9781526663986 |
| Format | Audiobook |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Genre | Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Love and relationships |
| Availability | GB, IE |
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