In Their Ruin

“Ms. Goldenstern takes us on a journey that guarantees nothing, neither love nor wealth nor security nor even the sustainment of one’s own life. Yet we come to empathize with these men in their younger and older versions, with the women who come into their lives, and with their errant mother, through their successes and failures. Though In Their Ruin is Ms. Goldenstern’s first novel, she is an accomplished stylist. Her lyrical style and its measured tone, and her knowledge of the novel’s milieu make this novel a significant contribution to American literature and to the literature of Chicago and its surroundings.”

— from Press Release Black Heron Press

In Their Ruin received the Black Heron Press Award for Social Fiction for 2024.

In Their Ruin was a finalist in Chicago Writers Association’s Book of the Year contest in the traditional fiction category. It was eventually awarded the second-place award of Honorable Mention. Judge Ashley Honeysett wrote the following:

This novel spans the years 1948 to 2016, following three brothers beginning with their childhood in Cicero, Illinois. We know from the beginning that the children’s mother is going to leave the family. This early abandonment will mark those left behind, but Goldenstern refuses to draw a direct line from the events of their childhood to the people they become and the way their lives turn out. Instead, she gives us the strong personalities of the three boys and the people they surround themselves with. She shows us how people insist on themselves, like carrots that grow in stony soil but grow nonetheless, crooked and singular.