Publication Date: November 9, 2024
It’s not that ElizabethAnn doesn’t want to live in the postmodern police state of No Oaks, where acrid refuse bins punctuate well-swept plasti-lawns and endless rows of ticky tacky. She simply doesn’t realize her hot-rod driving grandma has groomed her to break the space-time continuum and dive headlong into a forested dystopia called Bumblegreen, which she must single-handedly save from a sweeping blight. That’s all. In Bumblegreen, innocent ElizabethAnn will embark upon a search for one-hundred imprisoned, non-gendered sorcerers whose powers can rebuild this over-engineered, technology-driven queendom, all because she and Grandma are desperately in search of a home: a real home. You see, there are those who would put brilliant, eccentric Grandma in a home. That kind of “home.”
Most importantly, dear listener, if the trauma of happy, dumb animals turning into confused, neurotic people doesn’t irk you overmuch … and if you’re interested in the fates of an assortment of characters who somehow always feel out of place … well then Bits of String Too Small to Save may be the coming-of-age/ adventure/ mystery/ bad-ass-grandma/ dystopian/ magical realist/ fantasy novel you’ve been waiting for. Yes. I really think that might be the case.
This novel, this creative explosion, this daring exploration of misfit-hood has been lauded by John Berendt (author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil), caused Kirkus Reviews to proclaim Ruby Peru an “Indie Author to Watch,” and was named “Distinguished Favorite” by the New York Big Book Award. Its audiobook was a finalist for the 2022 Deanna Tulley Multimedia prize. Thriller author Sarah Lovett has said, “Peru’s narrative boggles and seduces.” So, there’s that.
Just as Lewis Carroll and C.S. Lewis captured generations of readers by creating richly detailed fictional worlds, author Ruby Peru issues an invitation to visit Bumblegreen.
Bits of String Too Small to Save features a young girl named ElizabethAnn who is adamant about claiming all five syllables of her first name, regardless of her mother’s opinion of one syllable per person.
With wit and whimsy, the author sends ElizabethAnn on a journey to an alternate world much different from her own boring and drab community. There, she encounters the seemingly impossible, suddenly becoming possible with an interesting cast of characters.
On the surface, the story may appear somewhat random and chaotic, but there is a purpose that shines deeply from the core. In this parallel world, reality takes a different form, celebrated in its uniqueness. This is a story perfect for both teens and adults.
The audiobook version, which is narrated by the author, features multiple voices for the characters and a catchy tune at the beginning of each chapter.
Bits of String Too Small to Save offers an adventure full of surprises for young ElizabethAnn.
Ruby Peru is a sloppy workaholic and independent operator with weird sleep habits and limited knowledge of pop culture. She studied under Kurt Vonnegut in the eighties and David Foster Wallace in the nineties, which made her want to really run away and never be a writer and, instead, be a person who surfs, climbs, cruises around looking cool on a motorcycle, and never runs out of adventurous weekends, but she isn’t and doesn’t. Instead, she’s ready when you are, dear reader, to write ever more adventures, characters, and meaningful things to ponder between the covers of a book.
The first novel in her own name (Bits of String Too Small to Save) is on bookstore shelves, but over the past decade, Ruby has ghostwritten numerous books for others, specializing in memoir. Her ghostwritten memoirs range from true-life romances to immigrant success stories to political memoirs, and, once, a bank heist tale. She enjoys helping people be truly understood by telling the stories that made them the men and women they are today.
