Ripeness by Sarah Moss | Blackwells.co.uk

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[00:00:00]I just wanted to read you a little bit from Whiteness.

[00:00:04]This is Edith, the main character, arriving in Italy age 17 for the first time. She's just traveled across Europe by train.

[00:00:14]I wanted to tell Nancy, "Look, here I am. 2 months ago we were still wearing school uniform, and now I've made my way right across Europe, and here I am about to cross Lake Como all alone, but more exciting than all alone, in the company of Italians. Some of whose Italian I can understand."

[00:00:34]Don't worry. I'll spare you my nostalgically recalled adolescent raptures over the scenery.

[00:00:39]I'd just ask you to remember that I'd grown up in post-war Derbyshire, that I was accustomed to bomb craters, by then overrun with brambles and morning glory, but sites of explosion nonetheless, that the rain-hammered ruins of aerial bombardment were ordinary, that rationing meant I had eaten my first orange when my mother brought them back from Israel in her suitcase, peace offering or bribe, and here were trees bright with oranges, and the scent of their blossom heavy as we came into each small harbor.

[00:01:08]Here were figs, which I knew only dried and chopped in suet puddings, ripening on the trees, lemons weighing down glossy leaves, hillsides silvery with olive groves when I had only read about olives. Yes, I know, done before, done to death, but like most clichés, there is a reason.

[00:01:26]I was 17 and hungry in every way.