The Book of X & Ripe: Sarah Rose Etter 2 Book Collection Set - Literary Fiction - Paperback

Titles in This Set
The Book of X
Ripe

Details
Condition: Brand New
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Verve Books
Genre: Literary Fiction / Contemporary Fiction
Age Range: Adult

Overview
This two-book paperback set brings together Sarah Rose Etter's acclaimed novels The Book of X and Ripe, both from independent UK press Verve Books. Together they follow Cassie, a woman navigating a surreal, body-conscious world shaped by family, work, and modern capitalism. The Book of X won the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award, while Ripe was named a Best Book of 2023 by TIME. Ideal for literary fiction readers and gift buyers seeking bold storytelling.

About the Books
The Book of X tells the story of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted into a knot. Moving from a childhood on the family meat farm to a city desk job and her first taste of love, the novel weaves domestic detail with surreal imagery — rivers of thighs, men for sale, fields of throats — to explore living inside a body the world calls disappointing. It is a haunting meditation on womanhood that earned Etter the Shirley Jackson Award.

Ripe continues Cassie's story a year into a punishing dream job at a Silicon Valley startup. Etter turns her surreal eye on late capitalism, contrasting obscene tech wealth with houselessness and burnout on the streets of San Francisco. A persistent black hole follows Cassie everywhere, swelling and shrinking with her anxiety and depression — a darkly funny portrait of modern work life that TIME named among its 100 Must-Read Books of 2023. Read together, the novels form a striking exploration of one narrator confronting a world both painfully familiar and deeply strange.

• Two brand-new paperback novels by Shirley Jackson Award winner Sarah Rose Etter
• The Book of X and Ripe read as a continuous story of the character Cassie
• Praised by TIME, The Cut, VICE, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Times
• Ideal for book clubs, university reading lists, and literary fiction fans
• A memorable gift set for readers of contemporary surrealist fiction

About the Author
Sarah Rose Etter is the author of The Book of X, winner of the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, and Ripe, named a Best Book of the Year by TIME. She also wrote the chapbook Tongue Party, winner of the 2011 Caketrain Award. Her short fiction has appeared in TIME, Guernica, BOMB, The Cut, and VICE. Etter holds a BA from Pennsylvania State University and an MFA in fiction from Rosemont College, and has held writing residencies at the Jack Kerouac House, Disquiet International in Portugal, and Gullkistan in Iceland. She lives in Los Angeles.

Why You'll Love This Collection
An award-winning double feature for readers who crave surreal, emotionally raw literary fiction. Together, The Book of X and Ripe deliver a haunting portrait of one woman's body, mind, and working life.

Please Note: Cover design may vary slightly from the image shown; this listing reflects the current UK paperback edition with UK ISBNs as detailed above.