Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz
Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz
3 Rating(s)
List: $14.96 | Sale: $10.48
Club: $7.48

Drowning Ruth

Author: Christina Schwarz

Narrator: Blair Brown

Unabridged: 9 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/26/2000


Synopsis

Deftly written and emotionally powerful, Drowning Ruth is a stunning portrait of the ties that bind sisters together and the forces that tear them apart, of the dangers of keeping secrets and the explosive repercussions when they are exposed. A mesmerizing and achingly beautiful debut.

Winter, 1919. Amanda Starkey spends her days nursing soldiers wounded in the Great War. Finding herself suddenly overwhelmed, she flees Milwaukee and retreats to her family's farm on Nagawaukee Lake, seeking comfort with her younger sister, Mathilda, and three-year-old niece, Ruth. But very soon, Amanda comes to see that her old home is no refuge--she has carried her troubles with her. On one terrible night almost a year later, Amanda loses nearly everything that is dearest to her when her sister mysteriously disappears and is later found drowned beneath the ice that covers the lake. When Mathilda's husband comes home from the war, wounded and troubled himself, he finds that Amanda has taken charge of Ruth and the farm, assuming her responsibility with a frightening intensity. Wry and guarded, Amanda tells the story of her family in careful doses, as anxious to hide from herself as from us the secrets of her own past and of that night.

Ruth, haunted by her own memory of that fateful night, grows up under the watchful eye of her prickly and possessive aunt and gradually becomes aware of the odd events of her childhood. As she tells her own story with increasing clarity, she reveals the mounting toll that her aunt's secrets exact from her family and everyone around her, until the heartrending truth is uncovered.
Guiding us through the lives of the Starkey women, Christina Schwarz's first novel shows her compassion and a unique understanding of the American landscape and the people who live on it.

About The Author

Christina Schwarz grew up in Wisconsin. She and her husband live in New Hampshire, where she is at work on her second novel.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Nicole on 2007-11-05 01:18:47

awesome, such creative writing, gives you the unexpected, i have been recommending to everyone

Goodreads review by Gaia on August 23, 2010

My mother gave me this book. Someone from her work gave it to her. The good thing: neither of us paid for it. My mom told me it was hard to get through. She wasn't kidding. The book centers around Amanda, a nurse who travels home to her family homestead in Wisconsin after she suffers several breakd......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on April 11, 2018

Wishy-washy and predictable.......more

Goodreads review by Haley on April 02, 2011

I'm having trouble putting together my thoughts on this book. The story was interesting and the mystery kept me engaged. I felt that some things were unanswered, and so I was left a bit unsatisfied. (i.e. I wanted to know more about Amanda and Joe's past, I felt confused about Amanda's "mental illne......more

Goodreads review by Carrie on May 02, 2010

The last thing I do in the world is take advice from celebrities so when I discovered this was on Oprah’s book club list I almost didn’t pick it up. But the book kept calling out to me and I folded. Beautiful story. It reminded me a lot of “The Heretic’s Daughter”, by Kathleen Kent. Though completel......more


Quotes

"A strong sense of portent and unusually vivid characters distinguish this mesmerizing first novel about horrifying family secrets and nearly annihilating guilt. Drowning Ruth is a complex and rewarding debut."
--Anita Shreve, author of Fortune's Rocks and The Pilot's Wife