What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez
Award History
| Award | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|
| PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction | 2024 | Winner |
About This Book
Twelve years ago, Ruthy Ramirez disappeared at thirteen while walking home from track practice in Staten Island, and her family never recovered. Now her older sister thinks she has spotted Ruthy on a reality television show. A funny, heartfelt, and ultimately devastating novel about a working-class Puerto Rican family in Staten Island and the long aftermath of loss. Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award.
About the Author
Claire Jimenez is an American author of Puerto Rican descent. She is the author of the short story collection Staten Island Stories (2019) and the novel What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez (2023), a darkly comic debut novel about a Puerto Rican family in Staten Island searching for their missing sister, who disappeared fifteen years earlier and who may now be appearing on a reality TV show. The novel won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2024 and was praised for its warmth, its sharp family dynamics, and its portrait of working-class Puerto Rican life in New York. Read more →
