Meg Mason returns with 'Sophie, Standing There': a literary-world comedy of obsession

Meg Mason's second novel, Sophie, Standing There, has been reviewed by The Guardian — and the paper calls it "a witty story of infatuation set in the literary world." The book, a follow-up to Mason's 2020 tragicomedy Sorrow and Bliss, will be published by HarperCollins on 29 September 2026 in hardcover, e-book, and digital audiobook formats, with a US cover price of US$30.00 (HarperCollins product page).

The Guardian published its review on 28 July 2026, awarding the novel three out of five stars. The review describes a continuously humorous and touching story about a sad, heartbroken woman who becomes obsessed with a famous writer (The Guardian).

That woman is Sophie, the protagonist, who works as a technical staff member — a "techie" — at literary festivals. The setup is brutal: Sophie's husband ends their relationship callously, telling her while she is in the shower with his earbuds in. The separation ends her hope of becoming a mother.

From that wreckage, the plot turns toward fixation. Sophie becomes obsessed with a famous novelist named Lilac Dunne, a fictional author who is booked to appear at a festival event after Elizabeth Strout — a real, Pulitzer-winning American novelist — drops out. The literary world becomes both Sophie's workplace and her escape, and Lilac becomes the object of her longing.

For readers who found Sorrow and Bliss — Mason's debut, which mapped a woman's mental illness and collapsing marriage through a dark comic lens — the new novel moves into adjacent territory: grief, obsession, and the gap between what we need from art and what art can give. Mason again writes a protagonist whose pain is filtered through humour, though The Guardian's three-star rating suggests a more divided critical reception than her first book received.

The September publication puts Sophie, Standing There squarely in the autumn release corridor, the season when publishers concentrate their most commercially ambitious fiction. HarperCollins, one of the so-called Big Five publishing houses that dominate English-language trade publishing, is backing the novel across formats. The US$30.00 hardcover price positions it in the standard range for a literary fiction first edition from a major house.

Mason, an Australian-born writer who lives in London, built her reputation on Sorrow and Bliss, which drew attention for its sharp tone and its frank treatment of mental illness. Sophie, Standing There is her second novel, and it arrives with the weight of expectation that a well-received debut creates.

What makes the novel stand out is its setting. The behind-the-scenes world of literary festivals — the marquees, the green rooms, the authors shuttled between events — is rarely the centre of a novel. Mason places a techie, not a writer, at its heart, and lets the machinery of the literary world become the stage for a story about heartbreak and infatuation.

The Guardian's verdict — three stars, witty, touching — is one review. The book reaches readers on 29 September.