Kate Riley's debut novel features Ruth, a member of an intentional Anabaptist community, whose fumbling faith and irreverent curiosity will captivate even as she mystifies those seeking tidy conclusions. Readers follow Ruth from her birth and naming in Gracefield, Mich., through Shalom (the confederation of young single people in the community), marriage, and motherhood within the Dorfs.
In some ways, Ruth is no different from her sisters in community: tying her kerchief and submitting to Saturday work assignments; requesting baptism and praying for God's will; marrying her husband, Alan, after weeks of written communication guided and edited by the elders, three days of engagement, and a New Year's Day wedding shared with another young couple. But Ruth's voice and her experience in the Brotherhood is singular as she vacillates between wonder, boredom, and despair. She is awed by "how beautiful the world had become. God was the trees and the sky and line where they met" and driven by an intense curiosity "inflamed by deviance," which is tempered by the benevolent patience of the community, tolerant of her many failures to meet expectations. Perhaps it is this gentle acceptance that keeps Ruth enfolded in the Brotherhood, even when its stays tighten uncomfortably around her.
Though countless members, including her eldest, Jamie, leave the community, Ruth remains. Riley's Ruth is a baffling character at times, especially as she accepts notions of submissive womanhood that defy feminist power. But throughout the novel, Ruth is a force, proving she can be no one but herself--an unlikely adherent, her rebellious heart committing to obedience. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian