Ruth

A Novel

By: Kate Riley

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick!

“It would never work out, but I’m in love with Ruth.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“A wonderful, loving, tenderly teasing and often moving portrait … [a] standout.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

“There are inklings of greatness in Kate Riley’s first novel… I suspect it will become an underground classic.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

In this mesmerizing and profound novel, the arc of a woman's life in a devout, insular community challenges our deepest assumptions about what infuses life with meaning.

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.

©2025 Kate Riley (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A wonderful, loving, tenderly teasing and often moving portrait. . . .Riley achieves a balance of warmth and subtle hilarity in recounting Ruth’s many slips from the ‘tightrope of obedience’ . . . [a] standout.”—Wall Street Journal

“There are inklings of greatness in Kate Riley’s first novel, Ruth. It claims a place on that high modern shelf next to the offbeat books of Ottessa Moshfegh, Sheila Heti, Elif Batuman and Nell Zink—those possessors of wrinkled comic sensibilities rooted in pain…Ruth is in touch with the oldest and darkest things in our makeup, yet revels in a very modern sense of what Riley calls ‘brainy female despair.’ Under Riley’s author photograph, on the back flap, a sentence reads: ‘This is her last book.’ I hope that’s not so.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“What really interests Riley is how a bright child’s mind resists the nonsensical demands of theology and how a young woman’s wit chafes in a closed community. … The author’s wry voice never flattens the meringue tips of Ruth’s childlike wonder. And later, as Ruth feels increasingly cramped in the little church, Riley maintains ironic distance, careful to avoid collapsing into the character inspired by her own experience. Her epigraphic style, informed by decades of sermons, aphorisms and comic retorts, ensures the novel’s delightful buoyancy. … Ruth’s … thwarted ambitions, her sacrifices for family and church, compose a melody as familiar as a melancholy old hymn. Riley’s ability to plumb that slip of salvation—in a way that stays true to Ruth’s life—is just one of this novel’s many graces.”—Ron Charles, Washington Post

Not What You Think

This is a story about a religious cult but it’s a very gentle cult - more like a religious order of hardworking individuals who think collectively. You won’t read about child sexual abuse, or horrors enacted upon women. Instead, you are privy to Ruth’s thoughts throughout all the seasons of her life. Is she a good member of this order? A bad one? Is she happy? Is she fulfilled? I think the best word to describe the book is quotidian, and in daily moments it can be difficult to recognize our true feelings overall. I loved this for the beautiful writing and the regular rhythms but I can see where it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Hice snapshot of an individual over a lifetime

I really enjoyed this well written story of the life of a Hutterite woman from the perspective of an individual. The community, while prescriptive and restrictive, did not opress Ruth. I got the impresión that the Hutterites actual y Tri to be good people. Inusual y don’t like fiction because most introduce the impossible. Not in this case. Every bit of the story could be probable.

There is no plot here

It's called a novel but it's more like a character study in vignettes throughout Ruth's life that are very lyrical. I love a good character-driven novel, but there has to be some kind of plot. None to be found here. Also, for such a deep dive into who Ruth is, I felt really disconnected from here and didn't care what happened to her.

I'd recommend this one if you're sick in bed and dozing fitfully. You can sleep through two hours and miss nothing (but good writing) since it's plotless.