The Truth About Ruby Cooper by Liz Nugent #TheTruthAboutRubyCooper @liznugentwriter @penguinukbooks #BookReview

 

If my sister hadn’t been beautiful, none of it would have happened.

Ruby Cooper and her sister, Erin, live an idyllic life in their close-knit church community in Boston. But when Ruby is sixteen, she is involved in an incident that causes her family’s world to implode.

Across decades, the fallout leaves a wake of destruction behind Ruby in Dublin and Erin in Boston.

Not that Ruby wants to think about the past.

But it can’t stay a secret forever.

The Truth About Ruby Cooper by Liz Nugent is published on 12 March 2026 by Penguin. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.
This review was also featured in the March edition of The Mature Times.

The Truth About Ruby Cooper is one of those quietly dazzling novels that creeps up on you, it’s beautifully written and structured, and full of emotional intelligence. From the opening pages, the author confidently guides the reader with elegance. It’s a book that needs to settle for a while. 

There is, undeniably, a central theme that could feel problematic in less careful hands. It touches on sensitive territory, the sort of subject matter that risks being mishandled, sensationalised, or even misunderstood. The author approaches the themes carefully and with empathy, giving Ruby a complexity that can be infuriating and also strangely compelling. It’s a delicate balancing act, and it’s done exceptionally well.

Ruby herself is a wonderfully vivid creation; flawed, layered, and despicable, yet ultimately human. The secondary characters enrich her world without ever overwhelming it, and the relationships between them feel tender, fraught, and real. The structure, too, is masterful: the story unfolds in a way that feels natural, each piece clicking gently into place.

What lingers is the humanity of the novel. It’s thoughtful, engaging, and astute in its understanding of how we tell stories about ourselves—and how those stories can both shield and expose us, and those connected to us. 

A beautifully crafted, yet controversial read that deserves to be talked about.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Liz Nugent worked in film, theatre and television.

Her five novels - 
Unravelling Oliver, Lying in Wait, Skin Deep, Our Little Cruelties and Strange Sally Diamond - have each been Number One bestsellers and she has won five Irish Book Awards, as well as the James Joyce Medal for Literature.

She lives in Dublin.

Instagram @liznugentwriter

www.liznugent.com