Ruby & Roland - by Faith Sullivan (Paperback)

About the Book

"However you first make your way to Harvester, you'll want to return." --WALL STREET JOURNAL

Book Synopsis

From the author of Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse and The Cape Ann comes a new tale of resilient womanhood in Harvester, Minnesota.

Growing up in early twentieth-century Illinois, Ruby Drake is a happy child. But one winter's night, her beloved parents perish in an accident--and suddenly Ruby finds herself penniless and nearly alone in the world. Her new path eventually takes her to Harvester, where she is lucky enough to find work on the welcoming Schoonover farm. Kind Emma, forward-thinking Henry, and their hired men--ambitious Dennis and reserved Jake--soon become a second family to the orphaned teenager.

At a historical moment when young women are expected to be focused on courtship and marriage, the industrious, bright Ruby searches for opportunities to expand her horizons at every step. Mastering her responsibilities on the farm. Learning to smoke cigarettes. Borrowing books from the local lending library, reading devotedly and expansively: mythology, romance, poetry. And falling in love with her married neighbor, Roland: "the most beautiful man--maybe in the world." But when Ruby is asked to care for Roland's wife in the wake of tragedy, she is torn between duty and passion, between what has been her lot and what could be.

Jane Eyre set in Faith Sullivan's "reliably inviting world" (Wall Street Journal), Ruby & Roland is a story of relationships--friendship, romance, and the families we are born with and create--and of one woman's journey of selfhood on the prairie.

Review Quotes

Praise for Ruby & Roland

"A vivid world . . . As the old saying goes, 'The heart wants what the heart wants.' And as you read Sullivan's tender novel, you sense it all around you." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Sullivan's writing is charming, and she has created a refreshing, unconventional love story." --Chicago Review of Books

"Fans of Jane Eyre will adore the intelligent, brazen Ruby whose combination of pragmatism and besottedness is winningly sympathetic. Replete with agrarian nostalgia and crisp prose, Sullivan's quiet tale is a wonderful, arresting meditation on sacrifice." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Unforgettable . . . The path [Ruby] chooses is unpredictable, unconventional, and fiercely her own. Fans of Sullivan's Harvester novels and resilient female characters will find much to love here." --Booklist

"Sullivan creates a story worthy of comparison to Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. Recommended for historical and women's fiction fans." --Library Journal

"Rapturous . . . The joyful sense of community within this love story offers a charming and refreshing escape from the modern world." --Kirkus

"Strong women, great sex scenes, and beautiful writing. Welcome back to Harvester, Minnesota! I love this book."--Julie Schumacher, author of Dear Committee Members

"It is a joy to return to Harvester and the beloved characters of Faith Sullivan. Once again, Sullivan takes readers on a journey to the Midwest that is a love song to the earth, the power of community, and the importance of literature in expanding one's horizons. Ruby and Roland share a forbidden love that alters the course of their destiny, as well as the fate of the members of their ad-hoc family. Bound by the love of the land and their love of each other, Ruby and Roland's story makes the reader 'live on hope.' What a beautiful tale for our times."--Pamela Klinger-Horn, Excelsior Bay Books

Praise for Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse

Top Ten Book of 2015 in the Wall Street Journal, and winner of the Midwest Book Award and the Langum Prize for Historical Fiction

"Sullivan's novels are a reliably inviting world, full of friendly faces and intimate dramas. . . . However you first make your way to Harvester, you'll want to return."--Wall Street Journal

"For all those fans of The Cape Ann, Gardenias, and The Empress of One here is your priceless ticket back to Harvester, Minnesota. An extraordinary book."--Julie Schumacher, author of Dear Committee Members

"Sullivan's canvas may be small, but her message is universal: books--including this one--have the power to amuse, console and transform lives."--Shelf Awareness

"Sullivan describes small-town life through the eyes of an intelligent, generous narrator who fights off gossip, pettiness and tragedy with compassion, perseverance and forgiveness. Who wouldn't want to spend a late-summer afternoon or two in the company of such a person?"--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Reading Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse, I was reminded of the extraordinary novels of the late, great William Maxwell. Here too are large passions, sweeping love affairs, and deep friendships. A beautiful and profound novel."--Margot Livesey, author of Mercury

"More than 40 years of history bookend a lifelong love affair with reading for the resilient heroine of Sullivan's latest novel set in Harvester, Minnesota. Nell's life experiences read like her book collection--some are part of a series, some stand alone, and all are ultimately comforting and timeless."--Kirkus

"Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse is told with Faith Sullivan's trademark warmth, wit and wisdom. Readers, prepare to be captivated."--Lorna Landvik, author of Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons

About the Author

Faith Sullivan is the author of many novels, including Gardenias, The Cape Ann, What a Woman Must Do, Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse, and, most recently, . A "demon gardener, flea marketer, and feeder of birds," she is also an indefatigable champion of literary culture and her fellow writers, and has visited with hundreds of book clubs. Born and raised in southern Minnesota, she spent twenty-some years in New York and Los Angeles, but now lives in Minneapolis with her husband.