Readers who enjoyed Kaye Gibbons' award-winning first novel, Ellen Foster, will rejoice in A Virtuous Woman. Through the story of how two seemingly ill-matched people somehow make a marriage, Gibbons plumbs the depth and breadth of love without sentimentality. For Blinking Jack Stokes, everything started with Ruby Pitt-from the day he spotted her sitting under a tree. Never mind that Jack was a skinny 40-year-old tenant farmer, and Ruby the carefully raised daughter of Carolina gentry. Jack found he could talk to Ruby, unlike other women. And Ruby knew she could trust Jack to take care of her, unlike her first husband. By alternately allowing Jack and Ruby to tell the story of their marriage, Kaye Gibbons creates a rich and architectural novel. Narrators Phimister and Stechschulte's performances give full force to this haunting duet of love, compassion, and understanding.