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, author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

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.

Ann Patchett, author of TOM LAKE and THE DUTCH HOUSE

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

Ann Napolitano, author of HELLO BEAUTIFUL and DEAR EDWARD

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, author of SANDWICH and WRECK

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

Gillian Anderson

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

Jojo Moyes, author of ME BEFORE YOU