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. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

``In her first novel, Hamilton takes on a challenge too large for her talents,'' said PW of this tale about a Midwestern woman who is loyal to her wounded and wounding family. ``Hamilton evokes Ruth's character marvelously, but others as seen by her are incompletely rendered.'' (Jan.) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

When a Wall Street Journal writer observed that "simple tales of life and sorrow in the heartland are red hot," he wasn't writing about Hamilton's (A Map of the World, Audio Reviews, LJ 7/95) novel, but he might as well have been. Ruth, an Illinois farm girl, gives a first-person account of her life in an effort to make sense of what has happened to her and her tragedy-prone family. The language of this novel, by turns naturalistic, romantic, and occasionally humorous, has a freshness and originality of expression, and Mare Winningham's vital and poignant reading makes Ruth come alive. Recommended for public libraries.‘Jacqueline Seewald, Red Bank Regional H.S. Lib., N.J. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Although the setting of this promising first novel is a rural Illinois town, its dreariness and emptiness remind the readers of the New Southern Gothic novels or Carolyn Chute's recent fiction about the Bean and LeTourneau families of Maine. From a collection of grotesques with appropriately bizarre and violent behavior emerges the resilient protagonist who has been written off as one of the underclass. Ruth is a loser whose dreams are quickly aborted; as she tells the cringing reader, "I knew we were poor and strange." Her self-awareness and matter-of-fact acceptance of her situation, which includes her relationship with her abusive mother, her violent husband, and her infant son, save the novel from becoming pathos. Despite the author's attempts to turn Ruth's story into a tour de force, this is a well-written novel with an interesting plot line. The grotesque characters and the touches of sardonic humor fit well with the author's tone. At times Hamilton seems heavy-handed in her characterizations of the do-gooders and social welfare people who wish to salvage or remake Ruth whose high point is the night she completed a seven and ten split for the Trim'NTidy Dry Cleaners' bowling team. Libraries that include novels in their collections should consider this one. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Jane Hamilton was born in 1957. She is the author of The Book of Ruth, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction. A Map of the World, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year was named one of the top ten books of the year by Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, The Miami Herald, and People. Both The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World have been selections of Oprah's Book Club. A Map of the World was recently made into a major motion picture, starring Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore. Her work, The Short History of a Prince, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998.

She lives in Rochester, Wisconsin.

(Bowker Author Biography) Author Jane Hamilton was born on July 13, 1957. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Carleton College in 1979. In 1983, two of her short stories, My Own Earth and Aunt Marj's Happy Ending, were published in Harper's Magazine. Aunt Marj's Happy Ending later appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1984. Her first novel, The Book of Ruth, won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award, and the Wisconsin Library Association Banta Book Award and was an Oprah's Book Club selection in 1996. Her second novel, A Map of the World, was also an Oprah's Book Club selection. Her other works include The Short History of a Prince, Disobedience, When Madeline Was Young, and Laura Rider's Masterpiece. In 2000, she was named a Notable Wisconsin Author by the Wisconsin Library Association.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.