RUTH by Kate Riley - Spotlight

 

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 was 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.

Riley says she had to argue for the author bio on the back flap of Ruth, one last oblique quip in the style of Ruth herself. It reads, “Kate Riley was raised in New York City. This is her last book.” If she were to publish again, she thinks her writing process would have to take the same form: a series of correspondence to one person — someone she trusts will understand what she’s trying to say — because there’s something she wants or needs to tell them. 

For now, she’s focused on her birds and on living well away from New York. And anyway, “it’s not like the world lacks for masterpieces,” she says. “There are so many ways to write the perfect book.”