Author Jeff Kunerth at West Side Books
About this Event
Tuesday, September 15th at 7:15pm. Join us in welcoming author Jeff Kunerth in conversation with historian Mark Barnhouse as they discuss Jeff's new fiction Ruthie.
Expanding from pages of an actual diary, a young female teacher in the 1930s West finds love, lies, deception, and M**der.
On the first day of 1930, a young single woman from Iowa took the train to Denver for a job as a church schoolteacher. Each day for six months, Ruthie recorded her life in a Milestone diary - capturing the sweet spot in Denver history between the Stock Market crash and the Great Depression. This book is a work of historical fiction weaving together factual diary entries with the fictional story of love, lies, deception and M**der.
In Denver, Ruthie waits every day for another letter from Walter, the farmer boyfriend she left behind, who pleads for her return. She becomes friends with Rose, an aging flapper; is pursued by investigative reporter Buckshot; falls under the influence of manipulative school principal Mr. Keul; becomes a reclamation project of society woman Mrs. Press; and attempts to tame Mary Helen, her most stubborn student.
As a novice teacher, Ruthie deals with self-doubt, homesickness, and temptations. She struggles with an anger inherited from her alcoholic father and critical mother. On the dark streets of Denver, she carries a straight razor and a revulsion for the skid row bums who remind her of her father. In Denver, nothing is what it seems. Most of all Ruthie.
Jeff Kunerth is an award-winning, Pulitzer Prize finalist, who spent 41 years with the Orlando Sentinel. He is the author of three other books. Ruthie: Love, Lies, Deception, M**der! is his first work of fiction. Kunerth spent considerable time in Denver researching the book set in 1930. He lives in Altamonte Springs, Florida, with his wife Gretchen. They have two sons, Chad and Jesse.
From Mark Barnhouse: Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, I’ve been fascinated with Denver’s history from an early age. Educated in the Denver Public Schools and the University of Colorado, Denver, my research and writing has been aimed at covering topics largely neglected by other Denver historians (with all due respect to their important work).
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