Little does she realise then that the demons she had left in the town while running away are still waiting to consume her. Here she merges into the seedy and glamorous life of New York only to be forced to return to Liberty where she is scorned at by the town folks. Liberty, though her native place, had only unpleasant memories for the child-Ruby, forcing her to make her escape to New York in the 1950s, “where Colored girls and White pretended to be equal”, to look for her mother. The story begins with Ephram taking a White Lay Angel cake to the hut of Ruby, whom he has loved since childhood.

This is one among the ten books in a list that I recently compiled, about books that are close to my heart You can read about it if interested in – Ten books that Crashed on me like a Tidal Wave – Its Personal Whenever I glimpse at the novel, I get transported to the day I was sitting on my balcony during a power outage and got bewitched by the story of Ruby Bell and Ephram Jennings, as the rains outside sprayed my bare feet and the edges of the pages.

You know those books that take you back to the time you first opened its pages whenever you see it on the shelf? Ruby is one among that for me. Random House published Ruby in 2014 in a modest print run of 15,000.Ruby by Cynthia Bondis the story of a girl and a boy, the persistence of their memories, the darkness that crouches behind to engulf them and their faith in redemption and love. With encouragement from her writing group, Bond finished a manuscript. 'I got so burned out at one point that I had to take time off, and I was on disability for a stretch of time and that's when I got the first draft,' she says. The work took a toll, but it also had a silver lining. Her killers were never brought to justice.Īnd some of the book's graphic sexual violence was influenced by devastating tales Bond heard when she conducted writing workshops with abused and runaway children. Other inspiration for Ruby came from a whispered family story, of a gorgeous aunt who was murdered by white vigilantes because she had a white lover. 'I just went: 'Who is that, and who writes like that?' 'īond does, drawing on memories of her own experience as an abuse survivor. 'Who doesn't want to know who that is?' she says. Oprah Winfrey says by the end of the first page, she was hooked. There are racial tension, sexual violence and human trafficking in this book, bleak stuff encased in hauntingly beautiful language. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Ruby Author Cynthia Bond

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