Ruth - by Kate Riley (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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. 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? Ruth immerses us in an experience that challenges our most fervent beliefs"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

"It would never work out, but I'm in love with Ruth."--Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"There are inklings of greatness in Kate Riley's first novel... I suspect it will become an underground classic."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times

"Irresistibly smart and funny." --Jenny Offill, author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation

"The serenely weird testament of an unintentional heroine in an intentional community, and an act of novelistic grace that deserves not only cult status but its own religion." --Joshua Cohen, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Netanyahus

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.

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? Ruth immerses us in an experience that challenges our most fervent beliefs.

Review Quotes

Praise for Ruth

"There are inklings of greatness in Kate Riley's first novel, Ruth. It claims a place on that high modern shelf next to the offbeat books of Ottessa Moshfegh, Sheila Heti, Elif Batuman and Nell Zink -- those possessors of wrinkled comic sensibilities rooted in pain...Ruth is in touch with the oldest and darkest things in our makeup, yet revels in a very modern sense of what Riley calls 'brainy female despair.' Under Riley's author photograph, on the back flap, a sentence reads: 'This is her last book.' I hope that's not so."--Dwight Garner, The New York Times

"What really interests Riley is how a bright child's mind resists the nonsensical demands of theology and how a young woman's wit chafes in a closed community. ... The author's wry voice never flattens the meringue tips of Ruth's childlike wonder. And later, as Ruth feels increasingly cramped in the little church, Riley maintains ironic distance, careful to avoid collapsing into the character inspired by her own experience. Her epigraphic style, informed by decades of sermons, aphorisms and comic retorts, ensures the novel's delightful buoyancy. ... Ruth's ... thwarted ambitions, her sacrifices for family and church, compose a melody as familiar as a melancholy old hymn. Riley's ability to plumb that slip of salvation -- in a way that stays true to Ruth's life -- is just one of this novel's many graces."--Ron Charles, Washington Post

"What a strange and wonderful book this is -- emphasis on the strange. No, wait -- emphasis on the wonderful."--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Riley's first novel fascinates with its realistic depiction of Hutterite life and beliefs and the extraordinary narration of Ruth's rich and idiosyncratic inner life from childhood to parenthood."--Booklist

"Cheeky, inquisitive, and a delightful pain in the neck, Ruth carries the novel with aplomb. . . A charming deep dive into the life and faith of one devout yet contrary everywoman."--Kirkus, STARRED review

"Irresistibly smart and funny." --Jenny Offill, author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation

"The serenely weird testament of an unintentional heroine in an intentional community, and an act of novelistic grace that deserves not only cult status but its own religion." --Joshua Cohen, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Netanyahus

"A detailed, delicate study of how character is formed by collision with so many sharp corners that they form a perfect circle - how we entrap ourselves in the choices of others, glimpsing freedom in flashes." --Nell Zink, author of Mislaid and Doxology

About the Author

Kate Riley was raised in New York City. This is her last book.