Sophie, Standing There: The highly anticipated new novel from the international bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss

by Meg Mason

From the award-winning, bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss comes an achingly tender, poignant, funny and bittersweet story of love, loneliness and finding connection in the most unlikely of places.
'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' Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry



Sophie Pattison is such a lovely person. Warm, kind, amazingly positive. She works as a freelance sound technician for literary festivals. She is a massive reader and was recently forced to moved house. She is bracingly lonely.* So much so, the absence of others feels like a physical weight, if that makes sense. But then, Sophie discovers an author through work, and comes to adore her. Her books, her interviews, podcasts, and wisdom and brilliance, her beautiful words. It's like, solace and company. It's almost like love. And Sophie would love to meet her, although she never will, obviously. The author would never come to her festival. She's too famous for that. Too brilliant, too beautiful. And in a way, thank goodness, because that would change everything. Sophie's entire life.

But ... what if she did?

*although she has a best friend called Emma, and an amazing brother. And a husband. But a number of things happened there.

Praise for Sophie, Standing There

'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.' Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

'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.' Catherine Newman, Wreck

'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, 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.' Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful



Praise for Sorrow and Bliss:

'Gloriously tender and absorbing ... It is impossible to read this novel and not be moved. It is also impossible not to laugh out loud... Mason pulls off something extraordinary in this huge-hearted novel, alchemising an unbearable anguish into something tender and hilarious and redemptive and wise, without ever undermining its gravity or diminishing its pain.' Guardian

'A raucously funny, beautifully written, emotion-bashing book' The Times

'Devastating and sharply witty' Books+Publishing

'A book you'll want to devour in one sitting ... fresh and revelatory, sharp, racy and entertaining throughout.' The Saturday Paper

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Books About Books, Audiobook, Mental Health, Adult

355 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 27, 2026

About the author

Meg Mason is the author of Sorrow and Bliss, which became an international bestseller after it was first published in Australia. Winner of the British Book Industry Book of the Year, and shortlisted for the Women’s Prize, it has since been translated into more than 30 languages. Her first career was in journalism, beginning at The Times of London, later writing for Vogue, ELLE, GQ, Sunday Style and The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts.
 
Born in New Zealand, she lives in Sydney with her husband and two daughters.
 
Her third novel, Sophie, Standing There, will be published worldwide in 2026.

Reviews

[Emily May]

4.5 stars. Meg Mason really knows how to get inside the heads of women having very particular kinds of breakdowns. I'm not sure I've ever read a book about a parasocial relationship with a celebrity (well, author, in this case), which is surprising because I'm sure it's more common than the average person thinks.

Really, this is a book of two halves. The first half follows Sophie as she spirals, consumed by a grief that is in one instant devastating and the next sedating. The only thing that gets her through is revisiting the work of an author she has read before but is only now finding a deeper meaning in. The words feel different this time; they speak to Sophie in this moment of her life and offer comfort like nothing else can.

I think this really speaks to how having someone articulate what you are going through is so extremely powerful and important. At first, these books and this author are a lifesaver for Sophie, but it eventually becomes a dependency that Sophie cannot extricate herself from. She is so far inside her own head that she is living a separate reality.

The second half I won't spoil as I enjoyed being surprised by the directions it took. I will just say that Sophie's job is working at a local book festival and all her sadness and self-sabotage come to a head in the aftermath of that.

Mason has this fantastic way of writing intimate details that add richness to her characters and stories. Here, the story of the IKEA chairs, and the celebratory pizza which turns sour at thoughts of Paul. These elements brought Sophie to life and gave me so much sympathy for her.

It's been a few years since I read Sorrow and Bliss, but this is the great character work I remember. Sophie, Standing There is sad, moving, and occasionally funny, and it is also a wonderful celebration of many female authors (it is quite an amusing coincidence that I am reading this at the same time as Olive Kitteridge).

I will read whatever the author writes next.

[emma]

if ann patchett likes it, i'll love it.

or okay, maybe just like it.

(thanks to libro.fm for the alc)
(review to come)

[Lisa (NY)]

I admit that a novel about a sad, insecure woman may not sound especially appealing, but I loved it. Mason is brilliant at getting inside her characters’ heads, and getting to know Sophie felt remarkably intimate. I also loved that this is such a bookish novel - one about literature and what it means to Sophie. She grew on me more and more as I came to understand her, and I would happily read another book or two about her. I recommend listening to the audio as Katherine Parkinson’s narration was utterly mesmerizing.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperAudio for the advance audio.

[miriam]

sorrow and bliss is a perfect novel; this is not. but it has a lot of heart and such deep wells of empathy and attentiveness to feeling. meg mason’s attention to the mundane details of life combined with her infinitely layered character work remains my favourite thing about her writing. and any novel that makes me cry gets five stars

[Bianca]

I didn't love Sorrow and Bliss, Mason's break-through novel, as much as most readers seemed to. I liked it enough to make me want to read more by Mason.

Sophie, Standing There is such a great title. Sophie is a thirty-seven year old audio-tech, working behind the scenes at writers' festivals and other such events. She's recently separated, lives in a dingy apartment belonging to her soon-to-be ex-husband. She loves her job and is very good at it. Unlike all the other techs, she loves reading.
Out of nowhere, Sophie develops an all-consuming obsession with a female author. She reads all her books, listens to all the interviews etc. (Raise your hand if you ever became obsessed with an author, singer, actor, or even long-dead historical figures - surely I'm not the only one.)
And what do you know, the famous author, will be part of the writers' festival Sophie's working at.

In recent years, I have been favouring novels about unhinged, out-there women. Sophie is the opposite of all those characters. She's quiet, unassuming, un-demanding, generous, giving and not very self-assured. Sophie is a gentle soul, I just loved following her journey.

Katherine Parkinson's narration was absolutely top-notch, as you'd expect from such a talented actor. [Say NO to AI narrated books!]

[Liz Hein]

I think readers will feel the exact same way about Sophie, Standing There as they did about Sorrow & Bliss.

[Melissa P.]

📖 Won in a giveaway 📚

3.5 stars. This book turned out to be pretty interesting. I was going back and forth on my rating. A good chunk of the book earlier on, I didn't really like. It wasn't really keeping my attention. I was waiting for the story to go somewhere. The main character, Sophie, meets a famous author named Lilac Dunne. Sophie went through a painful divorce and pretty much shuts out her best friend, Emma and Lilac becomes her main focus. Lilac seems very sure of herself and Sophie is drawn to her confidence. The feelings keep developing and it becomes a bit unhealthy as she learns Lilac doesn't feel the same way. I enjoyed the interactions Sophie had with Lilac. The story definitely picked up for me and it became hard to put down. The emotions in the book feel very real. I became sympathetic for Sophie. I wish the book had caught my attention sooner but I was happy for the parts I did enjoy. Thank you to the author, Meg Mason, Harper Collins and Goodreads for my free copy. Happy reading! ✒️📚

[Mel]

Mason’s writing style prevented me from liking this more. Confusing syntax and too many commas. Meant that the direction and meaning at the start of a sentence was often confused or changed by the end.

[Sayari Debnath]

Nothing good can come from listening to podcasts 👍

[Andrea]

A long-anticipated novel that I very much enjoyed while I was reading it, but I fear it's already slipping away from me. I bought the audiobook edition because I saw it was narrated by a favourite actress - Katherine Parkinson. She did a fantastic job of it. She performed Lilac Dunne ('the Author') with this kind of cold intimacy that was really effective for the story, and I wonder if I'd have 'read' the character the same way if I'd opted for a text edition. I suspect not, in which case I might have missed the point to a degree.

[Becca Moody]

I’ve not read any of Meg Mason’s books before but, given how many times Sorrow and Bliss has been recommended to me, I jumped at the chance to read this ARC of Sophie, Standing There. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for me!

Firstly, the protagonist was not one I was rooting for. Maybe I just have little patience for passivity, but Sophie, come on. I really wanted Sophie to just suck it up, say how she feels and make an active choice for once in her life. The purpose of the novel, perhaps. But where was the character development?

The story itself is quite uneventful really. The interesting elements are all in the form of meditations on Sophie’s past, which were included almost as afterthoughts. There were some revelations about Sophie’s past that felt like they were supposed to be plot twists or bombshells, but they were revealed in such a half-hearted way and with no breadcrumbs leading up to them, so much so that it just felt confusing.

I sadly found the book’s core story both pretentious and unbelievable. It read a little like how I imagine a boring fan fiction to be. It doesn’t help that the focus of the desire being an utterly intolerable, unkind and vacuous woman, and I don’t think that was thoroughly explored.

Overall, I'm really not sure what this book was trying to do.

Thanks NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for this ARC!

[Sara Troup]

I’ve been waiting for this novel ever since reading Sorrow and Bliss for book club years ago, and I’m happy to report that *Sophie, Standing There* was absolutely worth the wait.

Meg Mason has such a gift for writing women in all their contradictions: the things they say, the things they swallow, and the things they barely admit to themselves. Sophie Pattison is described as warm, kind, and relentlessly positive, yet she can go an entire day without speaking and spends much of her life alone with books. Mason captures that loneliness with startling precision. At times the writing felt visceral… I could feel Sophie’s craving for connection and the ache of being unseen despite being loved by the people around her.

The literary festival backdrop was a delight for a book lover. Sophie’s work among authors, events, and readers gives the novel an irresistible bookish atmosphere and the storyline involving her growing attachment to a long-admired author is both unique and quietly tense. The parasocial relationship never feels gimmicky; instead, it becomes a thoughtful exploration of longing, companionship, and the stories we tell ourselves.

What I love most about Meg Mason is her ability to dig deep into the female psyche and bring to light feelings that many of us experience but rarely discuss. But for all its exploration of loneliness, this isn't a heavy or bleak read. Mason's wit shines throughout and there were several moments that had me laughing out loud. Sophie's ex-husband in particular is an absolute creation. The humor feels perfectly timed, providing a welcome counterbalance to the novel's more tender and heartbreaking moments.

If you're drawn to intelligent literary fiction, weird girl/sad girl stories, and beautifully crafted prose, this is an easy recommendation. Sophie, Standing There is a moving story about loneliness, love, and the unexpected ways we find connection. As someone who has always turned to books for comfort, I loved the way Meg Mason explores how stories can keep us company when we need them most, while reminding us that real connection can sometimes be found in the most unexpected places.

[Shantha (ShanthasBookEra)]

"In this much anticipated novel, Meg Mason captures the heartache and dark humor of our relationships in all their complexity, with a story about the power of connection and an ode to the inexplicable nature of the human heart."

Sophie Pattison loves books and works for a book festival. She is married and has a best friend, Emma. Suddenly she finds herself spending Christmas alone. In her grief, she becomes obsessed with a famous author Lilac Dunne. As she gets to know the author better, she realizes that her public and private persona are very different.

There is a lot of name dropping and book references which are fun but I felt the story didn't connect me to Sophie and I failed to see that she experienced any growth in joy or confidence by the end. This came recommended by Ann Patchett which gave me high expectations that, for me, it just didn't live up to. I liked it but felt it was slow and meandered.

The audiobook performance by Katherine Parkinson (9 hours 18 minutes) was good but seemed to be a much faster pace than most. Sophie's emotions were felt through the narration.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Harper, Libro FM and Meg Mason for the gifted advance reader's copy and advance listening copy. All opinions are my own. 📚🎧

[Catherine Ogborne]

As much a love letter to pathological people pleasers as it is a threat to book publicists.

[Sage Kelly]

Such a shame, as I love Sorrow & Bliss, but both the writing style and the plot were all over the place.

[Barb]

Adored this one. But it’s not out till august 😱.

[Scott]

Character studies involving very thin plots are not my go to reading experience and 50 pages into “Sophie , Standing There” I thought I was in for a drawn out and not very enjoyable experience.

But I was wrong. Meg Mason’s writing and her nurturing of a character that has been beaten into submissiveness seemingly all her life and especially by a husband no father would ever want for his daughter, created an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was acutely aware that, in Sophie, I was being delivered a character who deserved your support and attention. And she deserved a brother like Laurie.

I think the cleverest part of the book is the delivery of the aspects that made Sophie the person she is. It was a collection of some very different challenges life throws up that give you cause to barrack for Sophie with everything you have.

This was a really pleasant surprise.

[cyd]

3.5

[Belle]

Probably my least favourite of Meg Mason's books, unfortunately. Not a bad book, and definitely easy to read, but I didn't get much out of it. Sophie is having a hard time after a bunch of bad things happened to her. She's not coping, and ends up becoming obsessed with an author she's never met, developing a parasocial relationship with her. I found this whole plot line annoying and boring. As more parts of Sophie's history were revealed later in the book, those seemed like the most interesting parts of the story, but they were treated like asides, almost, where Sophie's relationship with the author was the main thing, which I just didn't care about. The ending was also extremely twee and unnecessary.

[Catherine]

I just finished this, and immediately downloaded a podcast I remember listening to back in November 2021 - an interview with Meg Mason, in conversation with Hattie Crisell. Once you’ve read Sophie, Standing There, you’ll understand this impulse! I wanted to hear the author’s voice again.
This novel will stay with me for a long time. It is gut-wrenchingly sad and hopeful and compassionate. It’s about a parasocial relationship, behind-the-scenes at a literary festival, and the realities of life as a tech crew member (my partner works in sound & lighting and can confirm that Mason’s portrayal of this type of work is very accurate!)
I would like to know Sophie in real life. I’d love to have a conversation with her about books.

[Michelle]

“I swear, I was just turning pages by the end”.

Most apt quote from this book.

[MrsHarvieReads]

Thank you to Librofm and Harper Audio for an advanced listener copy of Sophie Standing There by Meg Mason and narrated by Katherine Parkinson in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sophie Standing There is a darkly funny drama about “heartbreak, isolation, and the unexpected power of human connection”. The story features Sophie, a book lover in her late 30’s who works at a local literary festival, and who is experiencing a major depression. “It felt like she was wearing an X-ray apron of grief and sadness”. Facing the end of her marriage, she lives alone and has been isolating herself from her brother and best friend. In an effort to seek connection, she develops an unhealthy obsession with a famous female author, Lilac Dunne, through her books and interviews. But when Sophie actually meets Lilac, she discovers that the author is far harsher than her public persona.

The story explores Sophie’s gradual path toward self-awareness. It’s ambitious and often surprising. And the name dropping of famous authors with asides was frequently hilarious. I didn’t always know where the story was headed, or understand the characters motivations, but I was invested enough to want to know how it would end. I didn’t find the ending completely satisfying because Sophie needed an assist from her best friend to show her where she needed to grow. Ultimately an interesting story of coming back to yourself after grief but the execution misses the mark a bit 2.75/5⭐️

I listened to the audiobook and had some technical issues with the production. The narrator spoke too quickly at times and with various volumes that became distracting.

[Daniella]

2.5

Unfortunately after my surprise enjoyment of Sorrow and Bliss this really didn't work for me... :(

I'm usually a sucker for books about the publishing industry but this felt a bit too insular to really land. If you didn't care about the ins and outs and gossip of writers festivals, I don't think the rest of this is strong enough to keep you engaged. Sophie is unfortunately a wet blanket until we get her backstory infodumped to us around the 2/3 mark, and her relationship with Lilac was promising until it wasn't (which was kind of the point but still...)

I just couldn't really root for Sophie through any of this, and the ending giving rom-com montage also felt like a very strange and rushed way to end this story. The complexities of the relationship between her and Lilac felt too surface-level compared to what I found in Sorrow and Bliss, and while it is making a commentary on celebrities becoming a replacement for real-life relationships, the reveal about Sophie's background makes it feel like her insular upbringing is the only reason she was susceptible to this which also didn't really make sense to me. I think this could have done a lot more with the idea of entitlement and access afforded by social media, especially as authors feel like a more attainable level of celebrity to meet and interact with.

I just didn't care about a lot of what was happening here which is sad because there was potential! I feel there are a few books around now about idol and fangirl culture from a cautionary tale perspective and I don't think this was really trying to do that, but I also can't really work out what it IS doing. Writers festivals as being a place to meet physically with likeminded people but also how it's all pretence? How we conflate being seen by a novel into being seen by an author, and we form a soul-connection that's entirely one-sided? But then what? And there's a point where Sophie mentions she doesn't think she's smart enough to read because she always takes things at face-value and can't detect an unreliable narrator - is that what was happening here?

Idk I just feel pretty ambivalent about this which is a shame - I think a lot of similar themes are here from Sorrow and Bliss but it just didn't feel as well-constructed in my opinion. It kind of satisfies the desire for writer's festival tea but I think if you're here for that you're kind of here for the wrong reasons; but also I don't really know how to recommend this one either.

Say it with me - having your protagonist be an ex-cult member and having that revealed through info-dump monologue does not make for an interesting story on its own!!!

[Jane]

Sad to give a Meg Mason book 3 stars. The first part was painful, there were sections that made me feel something - but not enough throughout. I love the style of writing, the story just didn’t do much for me. (After reading some of the reviews, turns out I don’t have an original thought in my brain.)

[Patrycja Krotowska]

Name-dropping imponujący rozmachem. Also: czy nie trzeba mieć zgody pisarek i pisarzy występujących w powieści na przypisywanie im konkretnych wypowiedzi i poglądów? Jeśli tak, to chyba właśnie na zdobywanie tych zgód autorka poświęciła najwięcej czasu, bo na pewno nie na charakterystykę bohaterki, narrację ani fabułę.

[Jo]

Definitely NOT ‘a sad girl story’ as the author hates this phrase and explained why at a meeting I attended with her and Esther Freud. The audible is very well narrated by Katherine Parkinson. There is some autofiction and the story goes on a bit too long before the important bits of the plot are revealed. Witty in parts in a satirical way and I enjoyed the author and book references. I have read the excoriating Times review and can appreciate the pov which is obviously deliberately challenging, but don’t agree. One medical error that annoyed me was having a pathologist take blood, obviously it was a phlebotomist.

Meg talked about her alternative upbringing. Like Anne Tyler she spent time in a religious sect. It was amusing to hear how she sought permission from the authors mentioned in the book. Othering and loneliness were also discussed and the way technical assistants are treated at festivals and how women writers are given unsuitable chairs to sit on. Meg has mentioned in other interviews that they normally have women interviewing women.

[Katharina]

I feel bad for not enjoying this as much because Sorrow & Bliss genuinely changed my lifeeeee but this one does not seem like it will stick with me, although it had its moments ;-(

[Poppy Sookunah]

5 for the last half, 4 for the first. If you love books, diffident women and literary fiction you will love this!

[Annie Martin]

Really adored this, couldn’t put it down. Went in many directions and I was rapt for them all. Such a fascinating reflection on loneliness and love and parasocial relationships and lots of other things - really excellent

[Chelsea Knowles]

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.*

Sophie, Standing There follows Sophie Pattison who is a kind person who will help anyone out. She has a good relationship with her brother and a best friend who wants to spend more time with her. Sophie is a little lonely after her divorce and the time can pass slowly on her own. She is a big reader though and finds comfort in her books. One day she stumbles upon an author she hasn’t read in a long time. Sophie latches onto this author by re reading all the author’s books and watching interviews and podcasts of the author. In a way Sophie feels like she is in love with the author and would like to meet them. If she did meet the author, Sophie feels like it could change her whole life.

At first I wasn’t too sure about this book but the further I got into this, the more I came to understand Sophie. This book is focused on character over plot and Sophie is a nice person who has tried to do everything right but has ended up alone in her late thirties. It was easy to emphasise with Sophie and it made sense why she attached to the author. As this story is focused on Sophie, it is a little slow but I found it to be quite powerful. I think this is a good exploration of a parasocial relationship due to the way Sophie idealised the author, a person she didn’t know based on what she saw online and read. I will be recommending this book as I had a good time reading this. This book is also very bookish as Sophie works at book events, is a big reader and has friends at her local bookstore and I enjoyed that.