The Language of Trees: A Novel - Softcover

Ruby, Ilie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061898643 ISBN 13: 9780061898648

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2010

Synopsis

“The Language of Trees, like Whitman’s Leaves of Grass though in a magic realist vernacular, refreshingly asserts that deeply American conviction: the gravest natural instinct is to heal and be healed. A shimmeringly heartfelt story.”

—Gregory Maguire, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked

  

“Crafted with suspenseful pacing and delicate imagery, Ilie Ruby’s book combines the qualities of an irresistible ghost story with a healing tale of redemption.”
—Elizabeth Rosner, author of The Speed of Light

 

A truly stunning literary debut, Ilie Ruby’s The Language of Trees is a fiercely beautiful novel that explores the relationships that define us, the events that shape us, and the places we will go to in order to save ourselves and those we love most. Fans of Jennifer McMahon, Alice Hoffman, and Niall Williams will be captivated by this haunting tale of homecoming and secrets that sparkles with exceptional writing and a gothic edge.

About this title

About the Author

Ilie Ruby is the founder of The Great Women Series, and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Motherlode, and other publications. She lives near Boston with her husband and the three children they adopted from Africa.

From the Back Cover

Gripping, suspenseful, magical, and richly atmospheric . . . Ilie Ruby's haunting debut novel, The Language of Trees, is exhilarating fiction that announces the arrival of a truly extraordinary storyteller.

Echo O'Connell knows that the summer holds its secrets. They are whispered in the rustling trees, in the lush scent of the lilacs, in the flurry of the mayflies batting against the screen door, and in the restless spirits that seem to clamor in the scant breezes on hot evenings. It is in summer that she returns home to Canandaigua, to confront these spirits, both living and not, and to share a secret with her first love, Grant Shongo—a secret that will forever change the lives of many people in the town and put to rest the mysterious disappearance of a little boy more than a decade earlier.

Grant, a descendant of the Seneca Indians who call this place "The Chosen Spot," has also come back to face his past. After a broken marriage, he has moved into his childhood home, a lake house that has withstood happiness and tragedy. He knows the spirits of the past must be dealt with—that of the little boy who disappeared all those years ago; the boy's sister, who never overcame the loss; and the love Grant still has for Echo. But before the healing must come the forgiveness. . . .

Reviews

Painter and short story writer Ruby debuts with a haunting, lyrical novel of love, loss, and second chances set in upstate New York and greatly informed by the Seneca Indians, whose lore imbues the book with spirituality. In 1988, the Ellis children set out on a stormy night in a canoe borrowed from the Songos next door to escape their brutish father. Luke, the youngest, drowns, and his older sisters are never the same: Melanie turns to drugs while Maya suffers bouts of catatonia. Years later, Grant Songo, 32, returns to his family's lake cabin after separating from his wife. While running in the woods, a wounded wolf trails him, and when Echo O'Connell, Grant's teenage flame, crashes her car to avoid hitting the wolf, she and Grant reconnect and are drawn into the mystery of the recently missing Melanie. Many locals believe Melanie's back on drugs, but Lion, the father of her baby boy, is convinced she's in danger. These characters face real and psychological fears to endure the transformative experiences needed to become whole in a worthwhile story filled with mysticism and symbolism.
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Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061898643
• ISBN 13: 9780061898648
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368