“The Ruins of Us” is a fast-paced work of contemporary fiction that explores the terrain of family relationships complicated by cultural conflict.

After more than 20 years of marriage to wealthy Saudi Abdullah al-Baylani, Rosalie, an American expatriate, discovers that her husband has taken a Palestinian second wife, which makes her contemplate escaping both the marriage and the country she has grown to love. Leaving will not be easy, however, given the country’s restrictions on women and the needs of her teenage children – a headstrong daughter becoming increasingly westernized and a son succumbing to radicalism.

The book’s publisher describes “The Ruins of Us” as  “a timely story about intolerance, family and the injustices we endure for love.”

About the Author

Keija Parssinen was born in Saudi Arabia and lived there for 12 years as a third-generation expatriate. She earned a degree in English literature from Princeton University and received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Truman Capote Fellowship and a Teaching-Writing Fellowship. “The Ruins of Us” is her first novel. Parssinen lives in Columbia, Missouri, where she is the Director of the Quarry Heights Writers’ Workshop, a community for Columbia’s creative writers.

Biographical information from www.keijaparssinen.com and www.harpercollins.com

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Final 10 Selections

Other Suggested Titles

On May 20 we will announce the winning book here at oneread.org.

In the meantime, read more about our finalists!

Photo credit: Avard Woolaver via photopin cc

“The Call” by Yannick Murphy

A large animal veterinarian in rural New England chronicles a year of his life and his practice in a series of log-like entries. As the days fly by, he saves some animals and doesn’t save others, he ponders nature and time, listens to what his house tells him, worries about the economy, waits for his son to wake from a coma and discovers what it means to be a family. In this highly original book, Murphy paints a quirky, reflective and warm portrait of small-town life that is both funny and deeply moving.

Preview the first few pages of “The Call.”

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“The Ruins of Us” by Keija Parssinen

After more than 20 years of marriage to wealthy Saudi Abdullah al-Baylani, Rosalie, an American expatriate, discovers that her husband has taken a Palestinian second wife, which makes her contemplate escaping both the marriage and the country she has grown to love. Leaving will not be easy, however, given the country’s restrictions on women and the needs of her teenage children – a headstrong daughter becoming increasingly westernized and a son succumbing to radicalism. This is an intimate and suspenseful family drama.

Preview the first few pages of “The Ruins of Us.”

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Stephen Dau’s “Book of Jonas” follows the 15-year-old survivor of an attack on his Middle Eastern village after he is sent to America to live with a foster family. Jonas struggles to adapt and to suppress memories of his village’s destruction and the details of his own survival. He finally reveals the heroics of a missing soldier who saved his life, a story that reveals a shocking secret to the soldier’s grieving mother. Our nominator writes that this novel addresses “the timely topics of war, terrorists and immigrants. [The writing is] well-crafted, including an unusual structure.”

See other readers’ nominations for One Read 2013.

These are the words of the reader nominating “In the Shadow of the Banyan” by Vaddey Ratner to be the 2013 One Read selection. Our nominator continues: “The language of this book is exquisite. Radner explores her childhood in this autobiographical novel set in Cambodia during the regime of the Khmer Rouge. History personalized touches readers in a way that dry facts cannot. Older readers remember this time, and younger people may be introduced to an era with which they are unfamiliar.”

Told from the tender perspective of a young girl who comes of age amid the Cambodian killing fields, this novel is based on the author’s personal story. For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family’s world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus. Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labor, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood, the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. (From the publisher’s description.)

Want to know what books others in your community have read and loved? See other readers’ nominations for One Read 2013.

Want to know what other books people in your community are discussing? View all of the nominated titles we have highlighted here at oneread.org so far, and find your next good read!

Science writer Strauch explores the latest findings that demonstrate, through the use of technology such as brain scans, that the brain reorganizes and improves many important functions in middle-age. By detailing exactly the normal, healthy brain functions over time, Strauch also explains how its optimal processes can be maintained.

Older is better! How refreshing!

Want more reading recommendations? See other books nominated for One Read 2013.

Ondaatje, author of the critically acclaimed “The English Patient,” tells the story of 11-year-old Colombo who boards a ship bound for England in the early 1950s. Looking back from adulthood, the narrator relates a tale about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a sea voyage. Another nominator wrote, “There is much to discuss in this book: coming-of-age, loss of innocence, childhood experiences and their effects on an adult’s identity. Plus, an ocean journey!”

See other readers’ nominations for One Read 2013.

Our nominator writes, “In gorgeous language, Mengestu explores the disintegration of relationships, the effects of abuse, the difficulties of immigration and the loss of one’s culture.”

Thank you to everyone who suggested books to be considered for the 2013 One Read program. As the reading panel begins its work, we will continue to highlight nominated titles so you can learn what others in the community are reading and discussing.