Drowning Ruth
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Blair Brown
About this listen
Deftly written and emotionally powerful, Drowning Ruth is a stunning portrait of the ties that bind sisters together and the forces that tear them apart, of the dangers of keeping secrets and the explosive repercussions when they are exposed. A mesmerizing and achingly beautiful debut.
Winter, 1919. Amanda Starkey spends her days nursing soldiers wounded in the Great War. Finding herself suddenly overwhelmed, she flees Milwaukee and retreats to her family's farm on Nagawaukee Lake, seeking comfort with her younger sister, Mathilda, and three-year-old niece, Ruth. But very soon, Amanda comes to see that her old home is no refuge—she has carried her troubles with her. On one terrible night almost a year later, Amanda loses nearly everything that is dearest to her when her sister mysteriously disappears and is later found drowned beneath the ice that covers the lake. When Mathilda's husband comes home from the war, wounded and troubled himself, he finds that Amanda has taken charge of Ruth and the farm, assuming her responsibility with a frightening intensity. Wry and guarded, Amanda tells the story of her family in careful doses, as anxious to hide from herself as from us the secrets of her own past and of that night.
Ruth, haunted by her own memory of that fateful night, grows up under the watchful eye of her prickly and possessive aunt and gradually becomes aware of the odd events of her childhood. As she tells her own story with increasing clarity, she reveals the mounting toll that her aunt's secrets exact from her family and everyone around her, until the heartrending truth is uncovered.
Guiding us through the lives of the Starkey women, Christina Schwarz's first novel shows her compassion and a unique understanding of the American landscape and the people who live on it.
©2000 Christina Schwarz(P)2000 Random House, Inc.
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Critic reviews
"A remarkable debut: surprising, unsettling and sure." --The New York Times Book Review
"A strong sense of portent and unusually vivid characters distinguish this mesmerizing first novel about horrifying family secrets and nearly annihilating guilt. Drowning Ruth is a complex and rewarding debut." --Anita Shreve, author of Fortune's Rocks and The Pilot's Wife
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It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward's husband, Cal, when she receives unexpected news - Cal's family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal's reclusive grandmother, now belongs to Merritt. Charting the course of an uncertain life - and feeling guilt from her husband's tragic death - Merritt travels from her home in Maine to Beaufort, where the secrets of Cal's unspoken-of past reside among the pluff mud and jasmine of the ancestral Heyward home on the Bluff.
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You'll LAUGH, LOVE, and maybe CRY a little
- By Jennifer on 08-08-15
By: Karen White
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The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove
- A Novel
- By: Susan Gregg Gilmore
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Bezellia Grove was born into the most prominent of Nashville families, but that didn’t stop her from having an alcoholic mother and a distant, adulterous father. Her nanny, Maizelle, and Nathaniel, the handyman, are the people who have taken care of her since she can remember. She considers them family, but her parents just consider them servants because they are Black. When Bezellia has a clandestine romance with Nathaniel's son, Whites and Blacks unite in fury at the young couple.
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light southern fiction
- By suzanne on 02-08-13
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Falling Home
- By: Karen White
- Narrated by: Lyssa Browne
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Cassie Madison has it all: A high-powered advertising career; a stylish Manhattan apartment; and a sophisticated, rich, and gorgeous fiancé. It's a far cry from her childhood in Walton, Georgia, home of the annual Kudzu Festival and hot, sticky summers. And then there are all the bad memories, the heartache. When Cassie's estranged sister calls to say that her father is dying, Cassie knows it's time to set aside her feelings and go home and face the sister she hasn't seen in 15 years.
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Could not finish
- By G. Moore on 06-08-11
By: Karen White
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Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
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Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
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The Plague of Doves
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James, Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.
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Avoid this Plague
- By Andre on 05-16-08
By: Louise Erdrich
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The Secrets She Carried
- By: Barbara Davis
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Though Peak Plantation has been in her family for generations, Leslie Nichols can't wait to rid herself of the farm left to her by her estranged grandmother Maggie. But Leslie isn't the only one with a claim to Peak. Jay Davenport, Peak's reclusive caretaker, has his own reasons for holding onto the land bequeathed to him by Leslie's grandmother. Before she died, Maggie hinted at a terrible secret surrounding Adele Laveau, a lady's maid who came to Peak during the 1930s and died under mysterious circumstances.
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Best book of the year
- By Joanne Tailele on 10-08-18
By: Barbara Davis
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This Side of the Sky
- By: Elyse Singleton
- Narrated by: Myra Taylor, Sharon Washington, Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
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Performance
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Story
Award-winning journalist Elyse Singleton delivers what Essence calls “a gem - the perfect book to curl up with.”
Best friends Lilian and Myraleen, two African American women from rural Mississippi, travel to Europe during World War II to act as members of the Women’s Army Corps. During this time of segregation and destruction, both women discover love and heartbreak, triumph and defeat.
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A Breath of Fresh Air
- By Adina Andreu on 07-19-12
By: Elyse Singleton
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The Promise
- By: Ann Weisgarber
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Overall
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1900. Young pianist Catherine Wainwright flees the fashionable town of Dayton, Ohio in the wake of a terrible scandal. Heartbroken and facing destitution, she finds herself striking up correspondence with a childhood admirer, the recently widowed Oscar Williams. In desperation she agrees to marry him, but when Catherine travels to Oscar's farm on Galveston Island, Texas—a thousand miles from home—she finds she is little prepared for the life that awaits her.
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Beautifully written and read
- By RueRue on 04-21-14
By: Ann Weisgarber
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Evergreen Falls
- By: Kimberley Freeman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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A long-forgotten secret, a scandalous attraction and a place where two women's lives are changed forever. 1926: Violet Armstrong is one of the few remaining members of staff working at the grand Evergreen Spa Hotel as it closes down over winter. Only a handful of guests are left, including the heir to a rich grazing family, his sister and her suave suitor. When a snowstorm moves in, the hotel is cut off and they are all trapped. No-one could have predicted what would unfold.
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Soooo Boring
- By Merford on 10-09-19
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Orphan Number Eight
- A Novel
- By: Kim van Alkemade
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt, Ginny Auer
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz is a vivacious four-year-old living with her family in a crowded tenement on New York City's Lower East Side. When tragedy strikes, Rachel is separated from her brother, Sam, and sent to a Jewish orphanage where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research. Subjected to X-ray treatments that leave her disfigured, Rachel suffers years of cruel harassment from the other orphans.
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Stopped after a few hours
- By Tamara on 01-03-20
By: Kim van Alkemade
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Among the Lesser Gods
- By: Margo Catts
- Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Elena Alvarez is living a cursed life. From the deadly fire she accidentally set as a child to her mother's abandonment and now an unwanted pregnancy, she knows better than most that small actions can have terrible consequences. Yet when her grandmother calls and asks her to watch over the children of a recent widower in a small, isolated town in Colorado, she takes it as a chance to finally organize her life.
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Without a doubt...
- By RueRue on 10-07-19
By: Margo Catts
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Angel of Harlem
- By: Kuwanna Haulsey
- Narrated by: Brenda Pressley
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Inspired by the extraordinary events of Dr. May Chinn’s life, Angel of Harlem is a deeply affecting story of love and transcendence. Weaving seamlessly scenes from the battlefields of the Civil War, during which her father escaped from slavery, to the Harlem living rooms and kitchen tables where May is sometimes forced to operate on her patients, this fascinating novel lays bare the heart of a woman who changed the face of medicine.
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Really Enjoyed!
- By Amazon Customer on 08-08-19
By: Kuwanna Haulsey
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What listeners say about Drowning Ruth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Llc
- 06-12-05
A well-written historical novel
Slow to begin but excellent character development and the narration is exceptionally elegant and distinctive. Ideal for this style of book. A very well written historical novel
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Mindee J. Plugues
- 07-11-06
Couldn't stop listening!
This book kept me intriqued all the way through. At first I thought it was slow, but then found myself thinking about the characters after I turned it off. It is a little bit of a mystery but more than that it is a story about real people - people you could touch and feel and understand. I highly recommend it. Parts dragged a little, but I found later that even those parts added to the overall story and made the book complete.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Hrblrmdy
- 08-31-05
Still Waters Run Deep
Set in Wisconsin, at the end of WWI, this novel explores a family?s loyalty, love and secrets.
If Ruth is still alive, why does she remember drowning? Through flashbacks, Christina Schwarz feeds us pieces of the truth, making you want to keep listening. The plot, though not totally original, is creative and a bit offbeat.
Note: This book is not a psychological thriller. It is about how life was long ago, about secrets people keep and why.
Also, other listeners have commented on Christina Schwarz?s writing style. The speakers and time periods change without notice. You will get used to the way this novel flows, so don?t let this be a reason to let this one pass you by.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Rebecca
- 11-05-14
Pronunciation
Would you try another book from Christina Schwarz and/or Blair Brown?
Probably not. I prefer longer books. That said, I enjoyed the book for the most part
Would you listen to another book narrated by Blair Brown?
Part of the reason that I bought the book was that it's set in Wisconsin, where I've lived all my life. I cringed every time she tried to say Waukesha or Fond du Lac or any of the other Wisconsin cities she mispronounced. I would think a narrator would make sure she knows how to pronounce the words she's reading.
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Overall
- DH
- 08-06-04
An Excellent Read
I found this book to be captivating, heart wrenching, warming, and compelling. I did not want it to end. The surprise ending is an excellent and spellbinding end! The author is a fantastic writer. I await her next novel.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Vivian Ford
- 03-23-04
Wonderful and engaging!
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. The story was engrossing and I came to care very much about the characters and what happened to them. I cannot wait for Christina Schwarz's next novel. I enjoyed "Drowning Ruth" so much that I went out and bought the paperback copy for my mother! Highly recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Liz
- 03-12-12
secrets, suspense and solitude
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, it's about strong women and the choices they make at a time in history where women didn't have that many choices.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Drowning Ruth?
The actual description of ice and snow
What about Blair Brown’s performance did you like?
Clarity
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
N/A
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Bailey Rose
- 08-24-24
Enjoyed the Physical Book More
I read the physical copy years ago and loved it. The time line seemed disjointed listening to it, jumpy. Overall still enjoyable.
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Overall
- Steven
- 01-12-05
Drowning Ruth
Never thought I would enjoy this book from the write up. It really seemed like a "womens book" ladies don't take this the wrong way but it is a type of book that would appeal to women.
Maybe that statement wasn't fair. I REALLY enjoyed the book regardless of my statement.
I have even bought a copy of the hardback and many friends have borrowed it and enjoyed it as much as I did. I will say it is a little depressing and heavy on the heart as the story progresses . I recommend it to adults only because of the sensitive issues.
Thanks audible for making this available to listeners.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall
- D.P.
- 05-29-04
Perhaps Overrated
I was disappointed with this book, especially after the rave reviews I read here.
First, it is difficult to follow because the story changes viewpoint character (sometimes from scene to scene) and also changes point of view. It is mostly told in third-person but jumps to first-person for little asides by the two main characters. These feel almost amateurish, as if the author didn't know how to work them into the story. Another problem is that the author choose two nicknames for two different characters that sound and read similarly, Matty and Mandy.
Second, the story itself lacks focus. There are large sections of story that don't have much to do with anything. One character is off thinking something or doing something but it doesn't have any effect on anyone else nor does it impact the plot.
Third, though the "suspense" of the story isn't revealed until the ending it did not seem strong enough to this reader to carry the whole book.
Also, this reader had problems with some of the actions of the main characters. They didn't seem to make sense and were never adequately explained.
Overall this book was probably worth listening to but was not as good as the reviews here would lead one to expect.
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5 people found this helpful