***SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS' WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016*** 'LUMINOUS' Gua
rdian 'STUNNING' New York Times 'EXCEPTIONAL' Uzo Aduba (Orange Is The New Black
) Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids ru
nning through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Rub
y Bell, "the kind of pretty it hurt to look at," has suffered beyond imagining,
so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950
s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city-the dark
ened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village-all the while hoping for a g
limpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother.
