RUIN
By Cara Hoffman
2022
First Published
3.78
Average Rating
128
Number of Pages
A little girl who disguises herself as an old man, an addict who collects dollhouse furniture, a crime reporter confronted by a talking dog, a painter trying to prove the non-existence of god, lovers in a penal colony who communicate through technical drawings—these are just a few of the characters who live among the ruins. Cara Hoffman’s stories are brutal, surreal, hilarious, and transgressive, celebrating the sharp beauty of outsiders and the endlessly creative ways humans muster psychic resistance under oppressive conditions. Both bracingly timely and eerily timeless in its examination of an American state in free fall, RUIN (April 5, 2022) is unsparing in its disregard for broken, ineffectual institutions while shining with compassion for the damaged left in their wake. The ultimate effect of these interconnected stories is one of invigoration and a sense of possibilities—hope for a new world extracted from the rubble of the old.
Avg Rating
3.78
Number of Ratings
139
5 STARS
30%
4 STARS
27%
3 STARS
35%
2 STARS
5%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads
Author
Cara Hoffman
Author · 8 books
HOFFMAN is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Running, So Much Pretty and Be Safe I Love You. She has written for the New York Times, Marie Claire, Salon, and National Public Radio, and is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades including a Folio Prize nomination, and a Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award. She has been a visiting writer at Columbia, St. John’s and University of Oxford. She currently lives in Manhattan.
