Ruth

By: Kate Riley

Published by Penguin Group, 2025-08-19

<b>A <i>New York Times</i> Editors' Choice Pick!<br><br>“It would never work out, but I’m in love with Ruth.”—Ron Charles, <i>The Washington Post<br><br></i>“A wonderful, loving, tenderly teasing and often moving portrait … [a] standout.”<i>—</i>Sam Sacks<i>, Wall Street Journal<br></i><br>“There are inklings of greatness in Kate Riley’s first novel… I suspect it will become an underground classic.”—Dwight Garner, <i>The New York Times</i><br><br>In this mesmerizing and profound novel, the arc of a woman's life in a devout, insular community challenges our deepest assumptions about what infuses life with meaning.</b><br><br>Ruth is raised in a snow globe of Christian communism, a world without private property, television, or tolerance for idle questions. Every morning she braids her hair and wears the same costume, sings the same breakfast song in a family room identical to every other family room in the community; every one of these moments is meant to be a prayer, but to Ruth they remain puzzles. Her life is seen in glimpses through childhood, marriage, and motherhood, as she tries to manage her own perilous curiosity in a community built on holy mystery. Is she happy? Might this in fact be happiness? <i>Ruth</i> immerses us in an experience that challenges our most fervent beliefs.