Ruby River A Novel

“Classic town gossip, the kind typically served up with strong coffee or sweet iced tea. . . . Pruett is one of those good-natured Southern writers who draw you in with their gentle drawl. . . . What is surprising is the grace with which Pruett orchestrates what, in lesser hands, could be a thudding farce.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review
 
“Ruby River is gorgeously written and its changing points of view are enlivened by the author’s nonjudgmental empathy with her diverse characters and leavened by her humor, embedded within a serious tale about character and morality.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
 
“A Southern story told by a Southern writer who must have spent some very hot days in some small Southern towns. Lynn Pruett knows her territory.” —The Roanoke Times
 
“[A] complex and beautifully written novel. . . . Pruett expertly guides the willing reader through the sticky, ion-charged Alabama swelter caused by drought before deluge, to the familiar, steamy bustle of an uncommonly pristine truck stop, and deep into the complicated lives of the fierce but comely widow and her teenage daughters who run it. . . . Pruett quickly subsumes the reader into the narrative which rolls like the river, cleaving edenic forests just beyond the parched fields.” —The Tennessean
 
“Ruby River falls into the Fannie Flagg school of good old girls, truck stops, small towns, small-minded people and the fierceness of a good waitress crossed. . . . Filled with colorful characters . . . Ruby River entertains effortlessly.” —Colorado Springs Independent
 
“A colorful story of family, foibles, and forgiveness. . . . Pruett paints a searing description of the social and religious consequences suffered by a family when the restrictive conventions of small-town behavior are disobeyed. Through compassion, humor, and a keen sense of observation, Pruett reinforces the power of personal forgiveness over religious redemption. . . . Her novel’s scope is wide and profound.” —The Double Dealer Redux
 
“A sensuous, humorous, heart-breaking and uplifting look at life in a small Alabama town. . . . [Ruby River] evokes the physical and spiritual heat of the South, with passions rising amidst gossip and religious hypocrisy.” —The New Haven Advocate
 
“Elicits compassion and righteous chagrin. Rage, malice and carnal injustice are offset with moments of poignancy and delicious anticipation. . . . Strongly plotted and engaging.” —The Huntsville Times
 
“We come to know and love these characters to the extent that we know they’ll go on to other adventures and misadventures after the last page of this book.” —Planet Weekly
 
“[A] sharply observed and colorfully peopled debut novel.” —Bookclub
 
“In her debut novel, Pruett writes evocatively, even poetically, of the South, fully drawing characters whose varied points of view are presented in chapters bearing their names. Her amusing descriptions offer lovely surprises and good reading. . . . Highly recommended for all fiction collections.”—Library Journal
 
“Snappy, smart writing, and memorable characters distinguish Pruett’s debut.” —Booklist
 
“Ruby River is Pride and Prejudice in a truck stop.” —Joel Brouwer, author of Centuries and Exactly What Happened
 
“Lynn Pruett’s novel is funny, smart, sexy, and full of heart. She understands small towns and small-town people, but she never condescends to her lively and engaging characters.” —Lee Smith, author of Fair and Tender Ladies and Saving Grace
 
“Lynn Pruett’s writing can break your heart and make you laugh within the same carefully structured sentence. This novel pulls off that nearly impossible feat of being both wonderfully poetic and wildly entertaining. Most of all, Ruby River is brimming with real life—all of its joys and sorrows and the moments of revelation in between, told with a graceful clarity that will leave readers desperate for more.” —Silas House, author of Clay’s Quilt and The Cool of the Day
 
“Lynn Pruett is a wonderful storyteller. Limitations of money, education, and mobility confront her characters, but their toughness, humor, and sexuality give them choices, complexity, and fire that make us care deeply about them. She renders tough economic and political realities while keeping the heart fully engaged. Lynn Pruett is a hell of a writer and Ruby River is a beautiful novel.” —Tim Parrish, author of Red Stick Men