A stunning debut novel about the turmoil and heartbreak that rocks a family when an American wife discovers her Saudi husband has taken a second bride.

Keija Parssinen was born in Saudi Arabia and lived there for twelve 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 and Writing fellowship. For The Ruins of Us, her first novel, she received a Michener-Copernicus award. She lives with her husband on the edge of a quarry in Columbia, Missouri.