Kate Riley’s novel ‘Ruth’ was inspired by her year in an insular religious community

Summary

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NPR's Book of the Day: “Kate Riley’s novel ‘Ruth’ was inspired by her year in an insular religious community”

Date: September 2, 2025
Host: Ayesha Rascoe (for NPR)
Guest: Kate Riley (author of "Ruth")
Duration: Approx. 10 minutes (excluding ads)

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Episode Overview

This episode explores Kate Riley’s debut novel, Ruth, a story drawn from her own experience living for a year in a cloistered Christian commune. The discussion focuses on information access, the challenge of fitting in, notions of happiness, and the universal pain of being human—regardless of how much information or community structure is available. Host Ayesha Rascoe and Riley examine the nuances of isolation, belonging, and self-understanding, both within the novel and the author’s real life.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Premise of Ruth and Its Inspiration

• The novel centers on Ruth, a curious, questioning girl born into a tightly controlled religious community with very limited access to information.
• Kate Riley based much of Ruth’s inner life on her own experience spending a year in a similar community as a highly inquisitive person.

“There's a lot of digital ink being spilled about how the Internet is breaking our brains... But is the opposite any better?”
— Andrew Limbong (Intro) [00:02]

2. Depiction of the Religious Community

• The community is inspired by the Peace Church tradition, similar to Amish and Quakers—no personal property, group consensus, communal living.
• No official hierarchy; decisions are made through consensus and prayer.

“It's sort of like being in summer camp your whole life...when you get to share all your appliances with your closest neighbors, you don't have quite as much to worry about, except you got a lot more community negotiation to do...”
— Kate Riley [02:59]

3. Ruth’s Curiosity and Struggle

• Ruth, like Riley, is “very inquisitive...wanting to know how things work,” struggling with whether such curiosity is a virtue or a flaw.
• Riley reflects on her own background—unrestricted information growing up—but retains the desire to explore and question.

“What’s wrong with me that I want to know everything about everything? ...I wanted to, like, explore what it would be like if you didn’t come from a place of total access, but had that same drive.”
— Kate Riley [04:20]

4. Autobiographical Connections

• Though not exactly a self-insertion, Ruth embodies many of Riley's thoughts and internal battles.
• Riley describes the writing process as exposing “a slice of my brain...sold as fiction.”

“A lot of her interior life is based on my own...worries about being bad or why do I feel down or why is something that seems so easy for other people really tough for me.”
— Kate Riley [05:04]

5. Joining the Community: Riley’s Real-Life Experience

• Riley encountered the community after seeking meaning and ethical action post-college. She found notable sincerity and moral action among its members–distinct from what she’d seen elsewhere.
• She lived there for about a year, including visits and short stays:

“Some of the happiest time of my life.”
— Kate Riley [06:30]

6. Literary Structure: Vignettes Over Time

• Ruth unfolds as a series of vignettes, or fragments, rather than a linear narrative.
• Riley cites influence from Evan S. Cannell’s Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge, preferring the realism of lived moments over sweeping, cohesive plots.

“That’s all...my experience of being a human. Like, you’re not having these sort of sweeping thoughts about your own narrative. You’re just moving through the day.”
— Kate Riley [07:35]

7. Gentleness and Absence of Scandal in the Community

• The book intentionally avoids sensationalist plots of abuse or violence common in portrayals of insular communities.
• Ruth is not obviously harmed, but she struggles with existential dissatisfaction.

8. Happiness and the Universal Human Struggle

• Riley challenges the notion that either total freedom or strict community guarantees happiness.
• Happiness, she argues, remains elusive and the core difficulties of being human persist regardless of circumstance:

“No particular lifestyle is ever gonna spare you the basic difficulty of being a human being.”
— Kate Riley [09:12]
“As long as you love things in the world, you are gonna be hurt in the world. And no marriage is easy...a lot of the things that that character and I struggle with are things that would be struggles as long as you are conscious.”
— Kate Riley [09:16]

9. Playful Author Bio: “This is your last book”

• The author blurb claims this is Riley’s last book—a joke to undercut pressure and expectations:

“I gotta set the bar real low...It is so nerve wracking to me that anyone would expect more. So if I manage to achieve anything after this, it will be a nice surprise.”
— Kate Riley [09:56]

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Curiosity and Community:
  • “Not knowing whether that curiosity is itself kind of a bad thing. Like, should I just be content with the information I’m given?”
    [04:04]
• On Living in the Commune:
  • “It was like the first time I’d seen a group of young people, specifically, who seemed to be able to both, like, talk and act on moral beliefs...”
    [05:50]
• On Writing in Vignettes:
  • “I like specifics. I like lists of nouns. I like particular moments and feelings and phrases.”
    [07:51]
• On Happiness:
  • “I've still been kind of grumpy, a lot of ... grumpy as euphemism. Like, I've been very unhappy at times in my life.”
    [08:30]
  • “Nothing like that, of existing, because it is hard to exist.”
    — Ayesha Rascoe [09:12]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro and Premise – [00:02]
• Description of Community – [02:31]
• Ruth’s Inquisitiveness / Autobiographical links – [03:41]–[05:04]
• How Riley Joined the Community – [05:28]–[06:43]
• Why Vignettes? Literary Influence – [06:43]–[07:59]
• Tone of the Book & Ruth’s Happiness – [07:59]–[09:48]
• Author’s Motto: “Last Book” – [09:48]–[10:10]

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Summary

This engaging episode highlights both the uniqueness and universality of human struggle, as reflected in Kate Riley’s Ruth. Through a close exploration of insular religious community life, Riley and Rascoe discuss themes of curiosity, conformity, happiness, and the irrevocable complexity of existence. The conversation is earnest, reflective, and peppered with Riley’s candid self-deprecation and literary insight—making it a compelling listen for readers and seekers alike.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. There's a lot of digital ink being spilled about how the Internet is breaking our brains, that unfettered access to just about any information you might want maybe isn't actually all that healthy for us. But is the opposite any better? Kate Reilly is a writer who spent about a year living in a cloistered Christian commune, one where access to information was located limited, which is tough for a naturally inquisitive person. Riley's debut novel, Ruth is about a girl born into such a community. And Riley spoke with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about how either end of the information access spectrum doesn't really fix what makes it so painful to be human. That's coming up.

[B]

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[D]

In, and the entire point of her insular religious community is to fit in. Ruth tells jokes, Ruth has ideas. She reads everything she can get her hands on. But those choices are pretty limited.

[E]

It took Ruth trial and mortifying error to learn what of the Bible was now accurate only in metaphor. Ethiopians, Jews and Greeks still existed. Pharisees, Samaritans and barbarians did not. Magi still existed as Persians, leprosy still existed, Pharaohs did not. At Saracens, Moors and eunuchs, Ruth wondered, not to mention all that the Bible didn't. China, India, America, outer space, the library's encyclopedias, clear and sedative beside the Bible's cryptic thrills, still misled. Ruth lived for decades in an alternate reality containing Zanzibar and Dipsomania.

[D]

Ruth is the main character and the title of a new novel by Kate Reilly, who joins us now. Welcome to the program.

[E]

Thank you so much.

[D]

Tell us about this community that Ruth is born into. What do they believe?

[E]

So there the community is in the Peace Church tradition, which would be the Amish, the friends. It's a group that came from Europe. They were persecuted by the Catholics because they didn't believe in infant baptism. They thought that everybody who wanted to be a Christian should make that decision as an adult. That was a hot take back in the day.

[D]

Back in the day, yeah. It was a big deal. Yeah.

[E]

So they don't have any private property. They share everything in common. They don't have any official hierarchy. Like, you come to decision through consensus and prayer. It's sort of like being in summer camp your whole life. Like, when you get to share all your appliances or get to have to share all your appliances with your closest neighbors, you don't have quite as much to worry about, except you got a lot more like community negotiation to do to make sure people are getting what they want, when they want it.

[D]

What is it like for Ruth in particular? Because, as we said, she is very curious. She is kind of questioning. She has a lot of thoughts. She's trying to figure things out.

[E]

It is, in a lot of ways, based on my experience in a community like that. And I'm a very inquisitive person, like, often to my detriment, but, like, just wanting. Wanting to know how things work, wanting to know what's going on outside and inside, and not knowing whether that curiosity is itself kind of a bad thing. Like, should I just be content with the information I'm given? Because a lot of people seem really good with that. Like, that seems to satisfy a lot of people. And what's wrong with me that I want to know everything about everything? That was something that I felt constantly. And I didn't grow up in a community like that. I had the information of, you know, growing up in New York City and, like, having access to all sorts of Internet. But I wanted to, like, explore what it would be like if you didn't come from a place of total access, but had that same drive to, like, see the world and know what people were thinking and know what the rules were in other places or why the rules were the rules. Like, all that stuff is so interesting to me.

[D]

I hate to do this to an author because it's not that Ruth is you, but is Ruth kind of your exploration of your own. Some of your own thoughts?

[E]

Yeah. I mean, it's real weird to know that basically a slice of my brain is now being sold as fiction. Yeah. A lot of her interior life is based on my own and my own, you know, worries about being bad or worries about why do I feel down or why is something that seems so easy for other people really tough for me. But I think I definitely was not the only person struggling with any of those questions there.

[D]

What happened there? Or how did you end up joining the community and how long did you stay and all of that.

[E]

It was the kind of thing where, I mean, I was preoccupied with being a good person. And I studied philosophy in college, and I did not find any answers or any that, like, seemed to track in real life. And when I met the kids from this community, to see people who seemed so sincerely, like, kind and thoughtful and hardworking in a way that I couldn't twist into, well, they were just naive or they were just deluded. Like, they were smart and engaged, and it was like the first time I'd seen a group of young people, specifically, who seemed to be able to both, like, talk and act on moral beliefs, but they just happen to exist in this weird, cloistered place that the only way to learn about it is to go there and do it. I can't get this information remotely. I have to go and try it for myself.

[D]

So you tried it. How long were you there?

[E]

I mean, all told, about a year of living in that community, and then time beforehand, sort of visiting or trying for shorter times. And it was some of the happiest time of my life.

[D]

Why did you choose to write this novel, like, as a series of glimpses into Ruth's life over the years, like these vignettes?

[E]

Well, one, it's a real easy way for me to write. I can't hold big thoughts in my brain, so it's nice to just have, like, to focus on a moment or a memory. There are two books by a writer named Evan S. Cannell that are Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge, and they are biographies, basically, of his parents, but they're told in the same way. And the first time I read them in high school, I was like, oh, this is. He figured it out. Like, this is the best way to tell anybody's story, because that's all, like, my experience of being a human. Like, you're not having these sort of sweeping thoughts about your own narrative. You're just moving through the day. You're like, you know, having a weird interaction on the subway and then sort of getting lost in thought, looking out the window. And so telling a story in just those actual moments gives you a much better sense of what this person is like day to day. I like specifics. I like lists of nouns. I like particular moments and feelings and phrases. And that was why I chose to do it that way.

[D]

This community. In the book, I Think some people reading it, and I was reading it too, like, is someone gonna come out? Is there gonna be an abuse scandal? Is it gonna be some, you know, violence or abuse? That's not there. It's very gentle, mundane. But it does seem like with Ruth in that community, it's not that she is harmed, but Ruth doesn't seem all that happy. Does that matter, the personal happiness of Ruth?

[E]

I think I, aside from the time when I lived in that community, I have basically been told, like, do what makes you happy. Like, that is the resounding message that I've grown up with is like, your happiness is of prime importance and whatever you need to do to find it is like the right thing to do. And I've still been kind of grumpy, a lot of like, grumpy as euphemism. Like, I've been very unhappy at times in my life. And when I was living there, something that I heard from like lifetime members, something that I saw and something I absolutely believe is like, no particular lifestyle is ever gonna spare you the basic difficulty of being a human being.

[D]

Like, nothing like that, of existing, because it is hard to exist.

[E]

Like, as long as you love things in the world, you are gonna be hurt in the world. And no marriage is easy. No relationship with your children is 100% good, no matter where you are. And there are definitely systems that I think make it more humane or more fair. But I think a lot of the things that that character and I struggle with are things that would be struggles as long as you are conscious. I mean, yeah, that's about having a brain rather than where that brain happens to be.

[D]

On the book jacket under your author photo, it says, this is your last book. Why.

[E]

I gotta set the bar real low. Aisha. It is so nerve wracking to me that anyone would expect more. So if I manage to achieve anything after this, it will be a nice surprise.

[D]

That's a way to look at it. Kate Riley, author of Ruth Her first, but maybe Not Her Last book. Thank you so much for joining us.

[E]

Thank you so much, Aisha.

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