Ruth Fitzmaurice Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

About Ruth Fitzmaurice

Drawing heavily from her own life, the Irish author Ruth Fitzmaurice is a novelist who writes directly from her own heart. Using her own experiences to help guide her work, she has managed to make a name for herself as a writer of immeasurable compassion and empathy. It is this that has also been effectively transferred from the page directly to the reader, resonating with a worldwide audience of readers from all around the globe. Writing in a fluid and evocative style, she really manages to convey what it is that she is feeling, making for a highly emotive experience when reading her work. Bringing to light many serious issues as well with her work, she really has managed to create an important and influential first novel. This would also allow her to speak up about her own experiences, giving an otherwise unheard of point-of-view all important air-time.

Transporting the reader, her writing also feels very much of its environment and time, as she takes inspiration from the world around her putting it back into her work. This has proven to be an extremely powerful and successful formula for her as an author, with many critics and fellow authors singing her many praises. It has also proven to be successful with the general public as well, with many readers relating to her work and her experiences, as there’s definitely more to come yet.

Early and Personal Life

Growing up with a passion for writing and art, the author to be Ruth Fitzmaurice was to embark on a career in the broadcast industry. This would lead to her getting a job as radio researcher, giving her an ear for compiling stories, then presenting them in an easily digestible manner. Using this talent of hers, she would take it into her writing, utilizing it effectively to convey the important message and story that she had to tell. Her time spent in broadcasting would allow her to also get used to speaking in public and knowing how to speak directly to people in a way they understand.

Later she would marry the Irish film-maker Simon Fitzmaurice, with whom she would have five children together with. It was later though, that he would begin to suffer from motor neurone disease, essentially leaving him paralyzed, something which would also come to weigh heavily on Ruth and her family. Looking after him and tending to him in his later years, he would sadly pass away in 2017 at the age of 43, leaving behind his family.

This experience would then come to shape much Ruth’s work to follow, as she would go on to recount the experience, becoming a spokesperson for the condition. It is because of her tireless work that she has managed to cast a limelight on it, as she has been able to help people get a better understanding of it. With more to come, she isn’t showing signs of stopping any time soon either, as she will continue to bring to light the disease, whilst also continuing to write as well.

Writing Career

It would be in 2017 that Ruth Fitzmaurice would arrive on the literary scene with her debut title ‘I Found My Tribe’. This would effectively be memoir recounting her experience with her husband, as she and her family comes to terms with his motor neurone disease. Telling the story with love and care, it would be a self-contained stand-alone title, capturing the entire story in one singular book. Receiving critical acclaim from many people, including both the critics themselves, along with the general public, it would herald the arrival of a major new talent.

During his life, her husband Simon Fitzmaurice would also publish a novel about his experience too, which would be titled ‘It’s Not Dark Yet’. This would come out in 2014 and managed to effectively convey his own experience with the condition and how he dealt with it. Working alongside Ruth’s later memoir, both of the books would effectively bring to light the situation as a whole, giving a far more complete picture.

Working as a producer, Ruth would marry Simon in 2004, as the two of them would have successful careers together. This would later change in 2008 when Simon was diagnosed, and Ruth would go about looking after her husband, taking care of him in his condition. A spokesperson for the condition itself, she has given various talks, such as a ‘TEDx Talk’, which allowed her to speak on her experience, something which she continues doing to this very day.

I Found My Tribe

Initially published through the ‘Chatto Windus’ publishing label, this would be a stand-alone memoir from Ruth Fitzmaurice. Her first book, it would originally get released on the 6th of July in 2017 to much acclaim, marking the arrival of a major new writing talent. Telling an intimate story with both love and care, it conveys some very real and human emotions about a subject that’s close to home.

Working as a letter to her family almost, this is a heartfelt story that aims to really convey a sense of love. Searching for the brightness amidst a difficult situation, it is filled with humor and heart, allowing it to come alive off of the page almost. With its Irish setting as well, it really manages to evoke a sense of the surrounding landscape too, bringing it all into full color for the reader.

Living with her husband and children, Ruth Fitzmaurice has her ‘tribe’, whilst she also has her other ‘tribe’ who are her friends who come to visit her. Taking place in Greystones, County Wicklow in Ireland, her friends all take to the cove throwing themselves into the freezing cold water, whilst her husband suffers from motor neurone disease, only being able to communicate using his eyes. Coming together to cope with the tragedies that life throws in their paths, the women all go swimming together in order to escape from themselves briefly. Dealing with her hardships, the story looks at her time spent swimming, as she finds who she is, coming to terms with the tragedy in her home-life. This evolves over the course of the book, as it breaks down the characters and who they, looking at real people dealing with the enormity of difficult situations.