Description

A LitHub most anticipated book of 2025

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.

Publisher Review

Really scratches the itch of ‘voyeuristic curiosity about what goes on in fundamentalist religious communities’ and is also so well written that it’s freakishly astonishing that it’s a first novel. Also: funny. * New York Magazine, Emily Gould * Cheeky, inquisitive . . . A charming deep dive into the life and faith of one devout yet contrary everywoman. * Kirkus, starred review * An irresistibly smart and funny novel * Jenny Offill, author of Weather, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize For Fiction * 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, The Netanyahus, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2022 * A delightful, quietly explosive, triumph of a novel, Ruth shimmers with a quiet sadness whilst being almost fiendishly playful. A marvel. I can imagine how readers of Marilynne Robinson will absolutely press it to their hearts. * Gemma Reeves, author of Mamele * 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 like lightning on the horizon. * Nell Zink, author of Mislaid, listed for the National Book Award * This novel asks big questions about what kind of impositions we live according to, and what is the most likely path to happiness. * Big Issues *