Reputed to be one of the world’s greatest writers and yet she only ever writes short stories, an art form I have little patience for as I do like to lose myself in a book. But these are different, they do stand out, they are very special and they have got to be read.
Comparison: There is nobody else who only writes short stories, so if you read her for those there is no other comparison but you could try William Trevor, Margaret Forster or Jane Yardley.
Similar this month: None.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
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. Munro is a magician with words, but also with layers of life and emotion.
Runaway features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Romance / Relationship Stories, Recommendations
Runaway is available in Ebook, Paperback (b Format), Paperback, Hardback
Runaway was written by Alice Munro and published by Vintage
Runaway has 335 pages
£8.99
