From the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize and 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature
At the centre of Runaway are three stories connected into one marvellously rich, long narrative, about Juliet - who escapes from teaching at a girls' school into a wild and passionate love match; then returns to the home of her parents, whose life and curious marriage she finally begins to examine; while in the third part of her story, her vanished child turns up caught in the grip of a religious cult. The whole picture emerges only when all the pieces of the jigsaw are finally in place.
The runaway of the disturbing title story is Carla, a congenital 'bolter', who has neighbourly fantasies that take on a frightening afterlife. Elsewhere, a stagestruck girl finds life is more Shakespearean than even she imagines; while Tessa, a young country woman with strange powers cannot foresee what will happen if she makes off with a plausible charmer.
Munro's stories unravel layers of the past, and different versions of the truth: her characters learn that if you look too closely at anything - the past, the truth - it may crumble. Runaway is about the power and betrayals, and twists, of love, about lost children, lost chances. There is pain and desolation beneath the surface, like a needle in the heart, which makes them more powerful and compelling than anything she has written.
Industry Reviews
Munro is one of my all-time favourite writers. She seems to really see people, like a mind reader who knows what her characters are thinking before they do do, and tells their stories with simplicity and empathy. -- Natasha Lunn * Red *
Runaway is so good I don't want to talk about it. Quotation can't do the book justice, and neither can synopsis. The way to do it justice is to read it. Read Munro! Read Munro! -- Jonathan Franzen * New York Times Book Review *
Millions of words have been spilt in attempts to tell us exactly what it means to be human. In Runaway, Munro performs that very miracle * The Times *
A beautiful, echoing collection, and a demonstration of perfected and unflinching form -- Ali Smith * Scotsman *
These stories are breathtaking - they leave you winded with their toughness and brilliance -- Helen Simpson * Guardian *
