The Ruiners by Ellena Savage

A dazzling, subversive debut novel by the acclaimed author of blueberries about love, lust, legacy and the last days of civilisation as we know it.

‘Is there any hope for us? is not a question we can answer, and this book does it brilliantly.’ Lauren Olyer, author of No Judgement

What do we inherit from the world and the people in it? And what do we do with that inheritance?

Pip’s life is going nowhere. She’s a university drop-out stuck in a dead-end job at a Melbourne lobster shack. But when her long-absent father dies, she’s left an orphan and fifty-thousand dollars richer. She doesn’t know what to do with her windfall until she meets Sasha, a dashing young scholar of Balkan literature.

Together, they hatch a mad plan: buy a decrepit house on a distressed Greek island where Sasha will write and Pip will sort out what to do with her life. However, instead of bohemian idyll, the couple find themselves ensnared in an environmental struggle that brings the mistakes of the past into sharp relief.

A dazzling, subversive debut novel by the acclaimed author of Blueberries, this is a literary page-turner about love, lust, legacy and the last days of civilisation as we know it. Instead of hiding from the world we’ve inherited, The Ruiners asks how we can create a better one.

‘With a scathing wit and genuine narrative flair, Ellena Savage has written a contemporary parable about gentrification, class, climate change and the need for political action in a society that seems to leave it less and less agency.” Vincenzo Latronico, author of Perfection

About the Author: Ellena Savage is the author of the critically acclaimed essay collection Blueberries (2020). Her stories and essays have been published widely and supported by numerous grants and residential fellowships. The Ruiners is Ellena’s first novel, appearing with Summit Books Australia, Sceptre UK, and Catapult Books in the US.

28 Apr 2026
 

The Ruiners by Ellena Savage ISBN 9781761638817