by Rod Dreher
First published 2013
Rod Dreher confronts a painful homecoming when his sister Ruthie dies of cancer at age 40 in St. Francisville, Louisiana. The Philadelphia journalist had left their small hometown behind, but Ruthie stayed to teach school and raise her family among the 1,700 residents who knew her name. During her illness in 2010, Dreher watches the entire community rally around his dying sister. He sees her face the disease with remarkable grace. At her funeral in 2011, Dreher begins questioning everything he thought he knew about success and meaning. Ruthie lived what seemed like an ordinary life as a mother and teacher, yet her death reveals something deeper about the value of staying put and serving others. Dreher and his wife Julie make a radical choice. They abandon their urban life to move home with their three children. They want their kids to grow up with the same rituals that shaped five generations of their family. The decision means accepting the limits of small town existence in exchange for genuine community.
Genres: family-life, american, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Louisiana, Philadelphia, St. Francisville
Period: 2010, 2011
288 pages · Hardcover · Grand Central Publishing
Content warnings: terminal-illness