by Cynthia Bond
First published 2015
Ruby Bell races through the piney woods of Liberty, Texas, her long braids flying behind her. Ephram Jennings watches from a distance, captivated by her beauty and pain. Ruby suffers terrible violence in their small East Texas town before escaping to 1950s New York, where she loses herself in the Village's darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways. She searches the city for any trace of her mother's red hair and green eyes. When a telegram from her cousin arrives, thirty-year-old Ruby must return to Liberty and face the memories that nearly destroyed her as a girl. The town still seethes with the same hatred that drove her away. Ephram, now a man, still loves the girl who ran through those woods. He faces an impossible choice between his sister who raised him and Ruby, the woman he has never forgotten. Ruby struggles against her past while Ephram bakes a cake in his sister Celia's kitchen, hoping it might help them start over. Their love must survive the town's violence and Ruby's traumatic memories.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, contemporary, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, second-chance
Setting: Liberty, Texas, New York, The Village
Period: 1950s
368 pages · Paperback · Hogarth
Content warnings: abuse, racism, violence