Chosen for Oprah's Book Club before publication, this first novel opens in 1919 and takes place in a straight-laced Wisconsin farming community where shame is a powerful motivator and secrets can blight lives.

Amanda Starkey, suffering a nervous breakdown, leaves her job as a nurse caring for wounded soldiers and returns to her family's farm on Nagawaukee Lake. Her parents dead, Amanda's sister Mathilde lives there with her three-year-old daughter Ruth, waiting for her soldier husband Carl to come home from a French hospital. Over the summer, the sisters move to the house Carl built on the lake island Amanda has always thought of as hers. Then, shortly before Carl's return, Mattie dies, drowns in the lake under mysterious circumstances.

The child, Ruth, remembers that she drowned too, a claim Aunt Amanda dismisses as a dream. "But Ruth maintained that she had drowned, insisted on it for years, even after she should have known better."

His leg badly wounded, Carl, bewildered and grieved, faces a difficult child who doesn't remember him and a sister-in-law who has everything well in hand and impatiently checks his questions about Mattie's drowning.

The story is told through various points of view, primarily Amanda's and Ruth's, but other characters as well, from Ruth's schoofriend to the wife of Amanda's former lover, Clement, a man the reader is unaware of until a chance meeting preceeds Amanda's second breakdown.

The details of the devastating affair emerge in bits, remembered very differently by Clement and Amanda, while Carl's memories of his marriage blur and give way to brooding suspicions and little Ruth excersizes a child's power over her world through willful stubborness.

Schwarz reveals her characters through flashback memories - Amanda and Mattie's childhood and Carl's fears of inadequacy, and through the guilt and love that shape and drive each of them. She examines the roles of shame and secrecy and the reverberations of these powerful motivators in the lives of innocents.

The innocent at the core, Ruth, exerts more control over her life as she grows and seizes a more central role in the novel. Torn between loyalty to Amanda and her own drive for independence, Ruth makes clandestine visits to the lake island where she last lived with her mother, seeking signs of her there. Moody and unsocial, she is ignored at school until one popular girl befriends her. Unwilling to return to her friendless state, Ruth endlessly entertains Imogene, who, she realizes, craves drama. "It took a lot of effort, sometimes, to have Imogene for a friend."

Amanda struggles to contain herself, to allow Ruth her own life. But she has kept so much bottled up that a spark of disobedience can blow apart her carefully constructed normalcy - the everyday aspect of a woman without secrets. When Amanda loses control it's scary and dangerous, giving rise to questions: Have the events of her life unbalanced her? Or was she so precariously poised that all she needed was a nudge? And, of course, what role did she play in the death of her beloved sister?

Schwarz' writing is deceptively plain, like her stalwart country characters. Her prose flows with easy grace, creating an atmosphere of brittle peace and brooding portents. Danger shimmers around each ordinary event as the secrets wriggle and push their way closer to the surface, moving inexorably to a cataclysmic, ambivalent, poignant climax.

DROWNING RUTH is Christina Schwarz's first novel, and what a brilliant outing it is! I can see why Oprah choose it for her book club selection. DROWNING RUTH starts off in the winter of 1919 and takes place in Wisconsin. Amanda Starkey, a nurse in Milwaukee, finds herself burned out and returns to her family's farm on Lake Naguwaukee. Her sister Mattie and 3-year-old niece Ruth are living there and taking care of the farm while Mattie's husband Carl is away at war. Amanda soon realizes that she cannot leave problems behind so things are stormy on the farm. About a year later, Mattie turns up missing and is soon found dead in the frozen lake. Amanda assumes all responsibility of the farm, and Ruth until Carl returns. When Carl does return, he is wounded, and it soon becomes clear that Amanda would rather not have him there at all. Amanda wants to have Ruth all to herself. Ruth's childhood is not a very happy one; Amanda is over protective and rigid. As the story unfolds, so do the secrets that were never meant to see the light of day. The story goes back and forth from the past to the present and is told in the voices of Amanda, Carl, and Ruth. I actually thought that I had the ending figured out before hand, but I was wrong. I must admit that I was a tiny bit disappointed with the ending, but that does not take away the fact that DROWNING RUTH is remarkably written and a very splendid read.

Once again Oprah has done a fantastic job in assigning her name to a new author. Christina Schwaz does an excellent job in her debut novel. The novel takes place during World War I (1914-1918); as the novel unravels so do the deeply rooted secrets of this mid western family.

Amanda, the big sister, gets dispatched from the war because she's incapable to carry out her nursely duties. She goes back home and moves in with her younger sister, Mattie and her child Ruth. Mattie's husband is serving in the war, so Amanda takes over and loves having her sister and baby all to herself. By the time the war ends, some devastating events take place - Mattie drowns, Amanda raises Ruth, and Mattie's husband Carl returns. Carl raises some questions when he gets back - What happened to my wife and how did she drown? Christina takes us through Ruth's coming of age, her friendships and her consciousness on how her Mom drowned. This is a page-turner that keeps you begging for answers until the very end.

It makes one think about secrets. Do you have any secrets that affect other people? Should you tell your secrets, or let destiny unravel them for you?

In James Herriot's story Smudge, the little Lost Lamb, there is a lot of action. I found it easy to relate to the little lamb. He is such a cute character. I really cared about what happened to him. I do think the author needed to spend more time on Smudge and his relationship with his mother,sister and the little boy who owned him. I think this would be a great story for young children. The illustrations are nice and Smudge is such a cute little guy.

If you're a fan of the other illustrated James Herriot books, (Bonny's Big Day, Only One Woof, The Christmas Day Kitten, etc.) you'll be disappointed in this one. Rather than being another true tale from his days as a veterinarian, this is just a mediocre, fabricated story about a lost lamb which really doesn't fit with the rest of the series.

This appears at first glance to be a well illustrated and pleasant children's story, but it descends into a shockingly unpleasant and heavyhanded anti-industrial pollution parable. Reading this book is like eating an apple and finding half a worm. I can't imagine wanting to share this book with a child.

This is a well-illustrated book. I have read it several times to the children in my day care home and it has made quite an impact on them. The book has been requested several times and has made them think about caring for the world around them. It has been the topic of discussion between the children and their parents. The story so impressed them that they carried its message home, to work together to keep their world a beautiful place. We loved the story and I am looking for 2 more copies, one to give and one to keep. Congratulations Ms. Brown!

Though it was an interesting read, it was interesting merely insofar as one can be interested in a work of fiction, brought upon in a blinded manner. Ruth has no real support that Witchcraft or Wicca is evil, and has not shed any light on the many wonderful aspects of religion. The book reads more like Maleficus than a true study of a religion, for apparently she hasn't studied at all. My students could write a more factual account of this wonderful, enlightened religion. No knocks against the Judeo-Christian faiths of the world, but is this person the best you could turn out? For shame!

I recommend this book to Christians (and Muslims as well) who wants to war against witches and insult peaceful Wiccans.If you aggree with this book,fast and pray .As a non-wiccan witch and a warrior priest of Hekate,queen of daemons I CHALLENGE YOU.If you rely on your religion and your church's spirituality war against me.Fast,pray and become a holy(!) prey for me...

The area where I live is filled with witchcraft. Ruth Browns book taught me just what I need to learn how to stand my ground. This book will open your eyes to what needs to be done for your family and loved ones, and your church, and for the glory of God. I truely enjoyed this book.