What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

A powerful novel thats hilarious, heartbreaking, and ass-kicking (Jamie Ford), of a Puerto Rican family in Staten Island who discovers their longmissing sister is potentially alive and cast on a reality TV show, and they set out to bring her home.

A March Indie Next Pick! Belletrist, Phenomenal, and Readers Digest book club pick! Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and a Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award!

The Ramirez women of Staten Island orbit around absence. When thirteenyearold middle child Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left the family scarred and scrambling. One night, twelve years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in Catfight, a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This womans hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left eye is instantly recognizable. Could it be Ruthy, after all this time?

The years since Ruthys disappearance havent been easy on the Ramirez family. It's 2008, and their mother, Dolores, still struggles with the loss, Jessica juggles a newborn baby with her hospital job, and Nina, after four successful years at college, has returned home to medical school rejections and is forced to work in the mall folding tiny bedazzled thongs at the lingerie store.

After seeing maybeRuthy on their screen, Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to where the show is filmed in search of their longlost sister. When Dolores catches wind of their scheme, she insists on joining, along with her pot-stirring holy roller best friend, Irene. What follows is a family road trip and reckoning that will force the Ramirez women to finally face the past and look toward a futurewith or without Ruthy in it.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is a vivid family portrait, in all its shattered reality, exploring the familial bonds between women and cycles of generational violence, colonialism, race, and silence, replete with snark, resentment, tenderness, and, of course, love.

A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 byElle *;USA Today *;Today.com*; Ms. Magazine*; Good Housekeeping *; Bustle *; The Week *;Goodreads *; Bookriot *; Pop Culturely *; SheReads *; Litreactor *; Electric Lit*; The Mary Sue*; People Espaol*; Zibby Mag *;Debutiful*; Her Campus

Best Books of March byShondaland *; Ms. Magazine*; Popsugar *;Bookriot *;Debutiful *;Powell's Book Blog *;TIME 100 must-read bookof 2023 *;BooklistTop 10 debutof 2023*; Library JournalBest Pop Fiction of 2023*; The Latinidad ListBest Debut Novel of 2023*;Chicago Public Library Favorite Book of 2023*; Good HousekeepingMust-Read Bookof 2023*;Today.com Standout Book of 2023