Book of Ruth

Book of Ruth Synopsis

PEN/Hemingway Award Winner:

• An '
• enthralling' novel of a woman trapped within a tragically dysfunctional family (Entertainment Weekly). From the New York Timesbestselling author of The Excellent Lombards and A Map of the World, this is '
• an extraordinary story of a family's disintegration [that] will be compared to Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres' (People). It follows Ruth Grey, a young woman in a tiny Illinois farm town, who has lost her father to World War II, and constantly faces her unhappy mother's wrathwhen she isn't being ignored in favor of her math-prodigy brother. As Ruth navigates her lonely life, she strives to find happiness and pleasure where she can, but the world may conspire to defeat her. '
• A sly and wistful, if harrowing, human comedy... [An] original voice in fiction and one well worth listening to.' TheBoston Sunday Globe '
• Unforgettably, beat by beat, Hamilton maps the best and worst of the human heart and all the mysterious, uncharted country in between.' Kirkus Reviews '
• Hamilton's story builds to a shocking crescendo. Her small-town characters are as appealingly offbeat and brushed with grace as any found in Alice Hoffman's or Anne Tyler's novels.' Glamour