Ruth

A LitHub most anticipated book of 2025 It will become an underground classic New York Times A wonderful, loving, tenderly teasing and often moving portrait Standout Wall Street Journal An irresistibly smart and funny novel Jenny Offill, author of Weather, shortlisted for the Women s Prize For FictionRuth 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.