Saving Ruth: A Novel

Ruth Wasserman has always felt like an outsider in her Alabama town. Being a curly-haired Jewish girl amongst blonde Southern Baptists was never easy and, within her own family, she has always played second fiddle to her older brother -- a star athlete and student who her parents adore. So when it came to college, she went as far away as you could get, attending the University of Michigan, a Yankee school that she hoped would open up a new world to her.
But now she's back home for the summer and though she may look like a new, wiser woman on the outside, she is struggling with low self-esteem after a dead-end relationship at school and what could quite possibly be the beginnings of a serious eating disorder. And now having experienced a world beyond her muggy, Kool-Aid soaked hometown, she feels even more removed from her family and friends. She's hoping time at the same summer job as a pool lifeguard and swim coach that she's had for the last few years will center her again. But when one day a child almost drowns on her watch, she discovers the repercussions will push her to confront truths about her parents, her brother, and herself that she's been trying to ignore.
In this engaging coming-of-age story, reader-favorite Zoe Fishman brings to life one woman's Southern summer and beautifully shows how tragedy can make us stronger and that knowing who you are on the inside is our greatest strength.