Oprah Attention Helps ‘Ruth’ Succeed

The success or failure of a newly released book often depends on an endorsement. Such is the case for first-time author Christina Schwarz, whose “Drowning Ruth” (Doubleday, 400 pages, $23.95) recently shot to No. 1 on The New York Times’ best-seller list.

While she has produced a shining fiction debut, Schwarz owes much of the attention to the hostess of America’s most-watched literary salon, “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

In “Drowning Ruth” (holding at No. 7 on this week’s list), Schwarz creates a very inhabited fictional world in which the stern, white clapboard environment of rural Protestantism attempts to conceal a darker side - in this case, a possible murder.

The setting is repressive Nagawaukee Lake, Wis., in 1919. One of the three narrators, Amanda Starkey, is returning home under emotional duress and impregnated with an illegitimate child.

Amanda shares a home with her sister, Mathilda, and her 3-year-old daughter, Ruth. Shortly after Amanda’s arrival, Mathilda falls through the lake’s thin ice and disappears.

Amanda goes about her life as though Mathilda never existed, assuming sole care of Ruth and her sister’s farm. We begin to assume foul play is involved. But little Ruth remembers what happened that night out on the ice.

The secret remains with Ruth, now a strange and brooding adolescent, until late in the story. For those who resist skipping to the final pages, the ultimate disclosure is at once stunning, and, in retrospect, obvious.