Ruby

Bond's debut novel is set in Liberty Township, an all-Black town in East Texas. Ruby Bell, once a beautiful, sophisticated woman who escaped to New York, has returned and now lives feral in the woods, haunted by ghosts of murdered children and scorned by the churchgoing community as a prostitute and a madwoman. Ephram Jennings, who has loved her since childhood, defies his domineering sister Celia and the town's mockery to bring Ruby food and try to draw her back to life. Flashbacks reveal the sources of Ruby's damage: childhood sexual trafficking, racial murder, and a community that accepted exploitation of Black women and children as a fact of life. Written in lyrical, hallucinatory prose, Ruby is at once a love story and an indictment. First published in April 2014, it became an Oprah's Book Club 2.0 selection in 2015.

Author: Cynthia Bond · Original publisher: Hogarth (New York), 2014