PEN/Hemingway Award Winner: An &“enthralling&” novel of a woman trapped within a tragically dysfunctional family (Entertainment Weekly). From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Excellent Lombards and A Map of the World, this is &“an extraordinary story of a family&’s disintegration [that] will be compared to Jane Smiley&’s A Thousand Acres&” (People). It follows Ruth Grey, a young woman in a tiny Illinois farm town, who has lost her father to World War II, and constantly faces her unhappy mother&’s wrath—when she isn&’t being ignored in favor of her math-prodigy brother. As Ruth navigates her lonely life, she strives to find happiness and pleasure where she can, but the world may conspire to defeat her. &“A sly and wistful, if harrowing, human comedy . . . [An] original voice in fiction and one well worth listening to.&” —The Boston Sunday Globe &“Unforgettably, beat by beat, Hamilton maps the best and worst of the human heart and all the mysterious, uncharted country in between.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“Hamilton&’s story builds to a shocking crescendo. Her small-town characters are as appealingly offbeat and brushed with grace as any found in Alice Hoffman&’s or Anne Tyler&’s novels.&” —Glamour
