Archive · 15 Aug 2026
'Sophie, Standing There': Mason asks if books can save us
'Sophie, Standing There' is a new book by writer Meg Mason.
It is about a woman named Sophie who is getting a divorce and feels very sad.
Sophie works at festivals, fixing sound equipment.
She becomes obsessed with an author whose books she loves.
Reading the author's words makes Sophie feel better, like headphones that block out noise.
Sophie says her feelings are love, not just a crush.
Then the author comes to a festival to give a talk, and Sophie's fantasy meets reality.
The book shows that authors are people too, with flaws, and that books can help us through hard times.
It is funny sometimes and sad other times.
Meg Mason's earlier book, 'Sorrow and Bliss,' was a big bestseller.
Meg Mason's new novel 'Sophie, Standing There' centres on a soon-to-be-divorced festival worker and her fixation on an author whose work speaks to her.
Protagonist Sophie is a freelance sound technician in an unnamed Australian city, reeling from a recent separation and renting a flat from her ex.
Mason's previous novel 'Sorrow and Bliss' was a 2020 international bestseller and won Fiction Book of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards.
The story's fantasy collides with reality when the author is invited to stand in for Elizabeth Strout, who contracted COVID, at an upcoming festival.
Five years in the making, the novel asks whether books can save us, keeps reading sacred without glorifying authors, and has sparser, more muted humour than 'Sorrow and Bliss.'
- Who
- Meg Mason, the New Zealand-born, Sydney-based author of 'Sophie, Standing There'; the novel's protagonist Sophie, a freelance sound technician facing divorce.
- What
- The review and analysis of Mason's new novel, which centres on a soon-to-be-divorced festival worker's obsessive love for an author and asks whether books can save us.
- When
- No specific publication date is given; the novel was five years in the making, following 'Sorrow and Bliss'' 2020 breakout success and its 2022 British Book Awards win.
- Where
- The novel is set in an unnamed Australian city; Mason is based in Sydney and was born in New Zealand.
- Why
- The novel explores loss, emptiness and the relationship between readers and authors, asking how books can save us at particular times in our lives.
Novel rebuffs the label
Critics question the rejection
Is 'Sophie, Standing There' sad girl fiction?
Novel rebuffs the label
The novel appears to rebuff the label: Sophie insists she has read Sally Rooney despite being 'completely the wrong demographic,' and Mason's fictional author notes that 'Anger comes from sadness. Sadness comes from loss.'
Critics question the rejection
The reviewer, citing author Phoebe Stuckes, argues that the term can cover texts exploring women's complex relationships and their 'glittering, righteous anger,' and asks why Mason would reject it.
- Novel
- Sophie, Standing There
- Author
- Meg Mason, New Zealand-born and Sydney-based
- Protagonist
- Sophie, a freelance sound technician and soon-to-be-divorced festival worker
- Setting
- An unnamed Australian city
- Predecessor
- Sorrow and Bliss (2020 international bestseller)
- Award
- Sorrow and Bliss won Fiction Book of the Year at the 2022 British Book Awards and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
- Time in making
- Five years
- Reviewer
- Amber Gwynne, Lecturer in Writing, The University of Queensland