Author: Ilie Ruby
ISBN: 978-0-06-189864-8
Publisher: Avon A Trade

Click Here To Purchase The Language of Trees: A Novel

The Language of Trees, Ilie Ruby’s first novel, really grabs its reader’s attention from the beginning as she weaves a tale of mystery and love. I fell in love with this gem for its characters, location, and plot. I was very impressed by this book and would recommend it to anyone.

One thing I look for in a book is its ability to grab hold of my attention from the very beginning and hold my attention throughout. I also need to feel a connection to the characters. The Language of Trees did just that and more.

This novel is set at Canandaigua Lake where, on a stormy night in 1988, the Ellis children –Melanie, Maya, and Luke - steal a canoe belonging to the Shongo family and make their way over to Squaw Island. However, the storm picks up and the canoe is overturned, sweeping seven-year old Luke Ellis into the water where his body remains for a year before he is found.

All the characters in The Language of Trees are connected somehow and in ways that will surprise its readers. They are all thrown into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Melanie Ellis 12-years after the death of her brother. Her boyfriend, Lion, refuses to believe she has returned to a life of drug use, despite what others think. Did Melanie return to drug use? Was she abducted? Does any of this have to do with her brother’s death?

Shortly after Grant returns to his hometown after his marriage fails, he is drawn into the search for Melanie when Lion asks for his help in finding her. Along the way he is reunited with his first love, Echo O’Connell. Echo has returned to see her ailing father and the last person she expected to run into was Grant. This causes a lot of mixed feelings to surface in both of them.

Ilie Ruby has won many awards for her writing including the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Fiction, the Eden L. Moses Award, a Kerr Foundation Fiction Scholarship, and the Wesleyan Writer’s Conference Scholarship in Non-Fiction. She graduated from the Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California and has worked on PBS documentaries in Honduras. She is also a teacher and has taught at the elementary school level in Los Angeles. Today, Ms. Ruby lives near Boston.