Winner of the 1989 PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel, this exquisite book confronts real-life issues of alienation and violence from which the author creates a stunning testament to the human capacity for mercy, compassion and love.
"Jane Hamilton gives Ruth a humble dignity & allows her hope-- but it's not a heavenly hope. It's a common one, caked with mud & held with gritted teeth. And it's probably the only kind that's worth reading about." (The New York Times Book Review)