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Runaway
Runaway
Oct 28, 2024 2:33 PM

Author:Alice Munro

Runaway

**AS SEEN ON BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS**

**Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature**

The matchless Munro makes art out of everyday lives in this exquisite short story collection.

Here are men and women of wildly different times and circumstances, their lives made vividly palpable by the nuance and empathy of Munro's writing. Runaway is about the power and betrayals of love, about lost children, lost chances. There is pain and desolation beneath the surface, like a needle in the heart, which makes these stories more powerful and compelling than anything she has written before.

Winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2009.

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

She is a sculptor of the human condition: nothing more and nothing less than an artist

—— Evening Standard

It is almost impossible to describe their unforced exactness, their unrushed economy... Munro has a genius for evoking the particular and peculiar atmosphere of relationships, their unspoken pressures and expectations

—— Alan Hollinghurst , Guardian

Her genius cannot be denied... The contemporary writer I admire above all others

—— Independent

The greatest living short-story writer

—— A.S. Byatt , Sunday Times

Munro is routinely called one of the finest living writers.You can turn to any of the stories in Runaway and see why

—— People

No one could dispute Munro's greatness

—— Daily Mail

Goosebumpingly unforgettable

—— New York Observer

Runaway may well be the synthesizing work of one of literature's keenest investigators into the human soul

—— USA Today

The great Alice Munro proves again why short story writers bow down to her

—— Vanity Fair

Sharply observed

—— Woman & Home

There was no story that didn’t hold my attention from its first sentences.

—— Scotsman magazine

The best of them showcase Dunmore’s knack for shining a light into the hidden corners of women’s experience

—— Metro

We too imagine ourselves in the room with her characters, imagine they are talking, like friends, to us

—— Evening Standard

Lyrical and full of human situations acutely observed.

—— Choice magazine

[A] remarkable collection of short stories exploring fragile ties between passion, love, family.

—— Western Morning News

This collection is the finest swan song of a writer full of sensitivity, talent and an immense grasp of the complexity of human nature.

—— The Opinionated Reader

A lasting testament to Dunmore’s wisdom, heart and elegant way with words.

—— Culturefly

Moments of startling insight into the hidden – and often uncomfortable – truths underneath modern relationships… there are some stellar moments of pithy clarity: In 'Scarred,' upon summoning a way to cheat desire, the protagonist muses, ‘I had everything that could be wanted. I invented new needs just to satisfy.’ This is a promising debut.

—— Publishers Weekly

Roupenian’s tales from the frontline of modern relationships are perfect for an alternative Valentine’s Day display.

—— Bookseller

A collection of short stories which cover the same murky waters of attraction as "Cat Person".

—— Olivia Ovenden , Harper's Bazaar, The books we can't wait to read in 2019

There is always some anxiety following such a short, steep rise to recognition, but in this collection Roupenian lives up to those high expectations. The stories are wonderfully varied in execution, from realist to surreal, staying fresh while circling one primary concern: how men and women relate to one another, and how often that relationship can go wrong.

—— Vanity Fair

[A] sharp, powerful and uncomfortable debut collection of stories[Roupenian] is always in narrative control.

—— Kathryn Maris , Times Literary Supplement

Abrasive, painfully aware accounts of relationships in turmoil… You know you want this collection.

—— Sarah Gilmartin , Irish Times

You Know You Want This seems to touch on conversations that the country has yet to have — often using horror and magical realism to illuminate the darker corners of our world.

—— Elisabeth Garber-Paul , Rolling Stone

In Look at Your Game, Girl and The Boy in the Pool, naïve female desire is so brilliantly and lushly evoked… [Biter] shows a flair for satire and comic timing… I look forward to Roupenian’s next book.

—— Nicole Flattery , Guardian Weekly

The best fiction leaves us thinking about it long after turning the last page, and with [Cat Person], author Kristen Roupenian established herself as a writer to watch. Her short-story collection, You Know You Want This, includes that story and others, all of which will have you talking about them long after finishing.

—— PopSugar

In her highly anticipated debut collection, the author behind the viral Cat Person story offers up a host of strange, fascinating, and downright delightful narratives you won't be able to stop talking about. Spanning a range of genres and topics, it is equal parts dark, uncomfortable, and funny.

—— Bustle

Readers who are looking for more uncomfortably realistic renderings of awkward romantic encounters won’t be disappointed, but this collection is so much more than that, offering an array of biting (sometimes literally!) looks at the ways our most hidden perversions manifest in our lives. It’s a razor-sharp, often ruthless, never less than relentless examination of the way we are now. Scary, right? But you know you want it.

—— NYLON

[You Know You Want This captures] the torturous and complicated justifications for untoward behaviour in the search for closeness and connection.

—— Eithne Farry , Daily Mail

What unites the collection is less her [Roupenian’s] gender politics than her interest in the way fantasies become distorted, disappointing, even dangerous when they approach reality… narrative twist[s] changes the direction of a story and leads it somewhere new. Roupenian’s desire to have her moral and reject it too could be said to put a twist on the twist.

—— Lauren Oyler , London Review of Books

Roupenian remains rooted in realism, she gives pause by exposing the sinister side of sexuality, and one looks forward to seeing what she might accomplish with the novel form.

—— Mia Levitin , Financial Times

Kristen Roupenian's debut short stories fulfil all expectations… she infuses mundane reality with a thrilling layer of menace.

—— Emily Rhodes , Spectator

One of the most anticipated story collections of the year.

—— Elle

Violence, cruelty or misunderstanding are never far away in these 12 stories, which are by turns, unsettling, ruthless and often funny.

—— UK Press Syndication

Walker’s laconic, Hemingway-esque prose style perfectly complements his low-key approach to his material: the matter-of-fact tone in which he recalls his most horrific experiences in Iraq makes them seem all the more horrible. It works equally well with deadpan humour.

—— Jake Kerridge , Sunday Times

Roupenian is a wizard of provocative, psychological fiction, exploring the dark side of the human psyche. Each of her short stories is terrifyingly relatable, making the reader fear something much more relevant than more supernatural horror stories.

—— The Mancunion

A fascinating and repugnant series of stories, all tremendous examples of what this unsung hero of a literary form can do.

—— Culture Calling

Roupenian’s wildly discomfiting new collection, You Know You Want This… is often wonderfully, if grotesquely, physical… This book isn’t bedtime reading.

—— Ruth Franklin , New York Review of Books

These are stories that make you feel fascinated but repelled, scared but delighted, revolted but aroused.

—— Glamour

You Know You Want This is an alarming but compelling book. Roupenian’s short stories, weaving together science fiction, confession and fantasy, are like infections spreading across the senses, blocking out everything except the compulsion to read on… Roupenian achieves something few other writers have: providing a balanced reflection on a very difficult subject.

—— Ella Whelan , Spiked

A new collection of stories that explores the complex - and often darkly funny - connections between gender, sex, and power across genres.

—— The Week, *Summer reads of 2019*
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