From the inside flap:

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.

Reserved for miketrollstigen (trading for Fight Club)

I finished this book ages ago, but I have not been actively BookCrossing for some time. I'm not going to rate it, since it was such a long time ago that I read it.

It was good, but not great.

I've contacted miketrollstigen to see if he still wants this book after such a long time.

UPDATE 4/28/07: I just contacted miketrollstigen for the third time about this. If I still don't hear back from him, I'll assume he's no longer interested, or has found a copy elsewhere, so I'll make it available.

UPDATE 4/28/07: Just heard back from miketrollstigen. He's decided to pass on this one, so I will make this book available.

RELEASE NOTES:

My Wife was taking my daughter to swimming classes at The Club, so I thought this was an appropriate release! She left it on one of the couches in front of the cafeteria area as they went in, and it was gone by the time they left.

Congratulations on catching this book! I hope you enjoy it. When you finish the book, I'd love it if you could journal again and share what you thought about it. Then, please pass it along for somebody else to read. You could give it to a friend or leave it someplace, like a park bench, restaurant or wherever you think it might find a reader who'll love it! It would be great if you'd join. Then you could track where your books go. If you do want to join, I'd love it if you would use Foucault - that's me-- as the name of the person who refered you. Either way, thanks for checking out the site!

And, if you are already a friend of bookcrossing, please take a minute to journal. Thanks!