The Autumn of Ruth Winters

Nearing 70, Ruth Winters feels fairly settled. She lives in suburban Minneapolis, babysitting for neighborhood children to stretch her Social Security check and enjoying relative calm. Widowed for almost 20 years, Ruth expected this chapter of her life to proceed just as uneventfully as the ones before. But then her estranged younger sister, Veronica, calls, asking Ruth for a ride next week. It takes a little verbal arm-twisting before Veronica admits that she needs a ride to chemotherapy. After a lifetime of petty slights and grudges between them, Ruth is surprised to find herself feeling sentimental about Veronica's diagnosis. Perhaps things won't be proceeding as Ruth expected, and maybe there's a benefit to broadening her world. This is a late-in-life coming-of-age tale, proving that reconnection and reconciliation don't have an age limit. Fans of Hazel Prior's How the Penguins Saved Veronica (2020) and Lee Smith's Silver Alert (2023) will find lots to like in Fine's heartwarming novel about unexpected connections at unexpected times.

Film writer Fine (Accidental Genius) makes his fiction debut with the uplifting story of a 60-something Minnesotan introvert trying to overcome past regrets and bitterness. As a young woman, Ruth Winters dropped out of college to care for her father after her parents' devastating car accident, which killed her mother and left him paralyzed. Now, having abandoned her dream of becoming a museum curator, she's laid off from her bookkeeping job and starts babysitting to make ends meet. She remains resentful of her vivacious younger sister, Veronica, who abandoned Ruth and their father decades earlier. When Veronica asks Ruth to drive her to a chemotherapy appointment, Ruth initially balks at the idea but eventually relents, and is upset by Veronica's physical decline. Veronica apologizes for how she's treated Ruth over the years, and as the women repair their relationship, Veronica urges Ruth to attend an upcoming high school reunion with Martin Daly, an old flame who became a huge success and is still fond of Ruth. Fine skillfully demonstrates how Ruth's anxieties and resentment trapped her in a lifelong pattern of self-sabotage. Readers will enjoy cheering for Fine's late bloomer. Agent: Murray Weiss, Catalyst Literary. (Nov.)