More Like Not Running Away
An “extraordinary first novel” about a father trying to escape the past and a son lost in a world of imaginary voices—winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize (Booklist). Levi Revel is a boy in danger of losing his family and maybe his mind. He’s in awe of his father, Everest—a majestic dreamer, a master builder, a man with a violent, secret past. As the family moves from state to state, Levi hears solace in the voice of God, a voice that sends him preaching from treetops and roofs. But as the family begins to fall apart and Levi enters adolescence, he starts to hear more troubling things. When Everest takes him on a high-speed, cross-country chase to win back Levi’s mother—by force if necessary—Levi realizes how much danger they all are in. Tender and frightening, More Like Not Running Away takes readers across America, through the eyes and ears of a child whose family is haunted by a past they can’t outrun. “Shepherd’s family-in-decline frames an impressive father-son character study.” —Publishers Weekly “This extraordinary first novel about the blood ties that bind fathers and sons packs such emotional power that reading it is like sustaining repeated blows to the heart.” —Booklist “Shepherd is a master craftsman, and the subtlety of his art, the unassuming elegance of its architecture, rendered me spellbound and finally grateful.” —Bob Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul “A riveting exploration of what it is to be an outsider even in your own head. Shepherd has written a gripping story of childhood angst—psychologically thrilling, lyrically exact.” —Janet Burroway, author of Writing Fiction
The Art of Running Away
When Maisie reconnects with her estranged 22-year-old brother abroad while trying to save her family’s portrait studio, she uncovers a truth about her parents that changes everything.
Running Away
Showing how one decision can alter the course of a life, a journalist shares his personal journey of coming back up after hitting rock bottom by developing a passion for long-distance running.
The Beginner's Guide to Running Away from Home
What kid hasn't wanted to make their parents feel sorry for treating him badly? And how better to accomplish this than to run away? Here's a guide showing how, from what to pack (gum--then you won't have to brush your teeth) to how to survive (don't think about your cozy bed). Ultimately, though, readers will see that there really is no place like home. Like Judith Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, here's a spot-on portrait of a kid who's had it. And like Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, it's also a journey inside a creative kid's imagination: that special place where parents aren't allowed without permission.
Running Away to Home
A middle class, Midwestern family in search of meaning uproot themselves and move to their ancestral village in Croatia. "We can look at this in two ways," Jim wrote, always the pragmatist. "We can panic and scrap the whole idea. Or we can take this as a sign. They're saying the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. Maybe this is the kick in the pants we needed to do something completely different. There will always be an excuse not to go..." And that, friends, is how a typically sane middle-aged mother decided to drag her family back to a forlorn mountain village in the backwoods of Croatia. So begins author Jennifer Wilson's journey in Running Away to Home. Jen, her architect husband, Jim, and their two children had been living the typical soccer- and ballet-practice life in the most Middle American of places: Des Moines, Iowa. They overindulged themselves and their kids, and as a family they were losing one another in the rush of work, school, and activities. One day, Jen and her husband looked at each other–both holding their Starbucks coffee as they headed out to their SUV in the mall parking lot, while the kids complained about the inferiority of the toys they just got–and asked themselves: "Is this the American dream? Because if it is, it sort of sucks." Jim and Jen had always dreamed of taking a family sabbatical in another country, so when they lost half their savings in the stock-market crash, it seemed like just a crazy enough time to do it. High on wanderlust, they left the troubled landscape of contemporary America for the Croatian mountain village of Mrkopalj, the land of Jennifer's ancestors. It was a village that seemed hermetically sealed for the last one hundred years, with a population of eight hundred (mostly drunken) residents and a herd of sheep milling around the post office. For several months they lived like locals, from milking the neighbor's cows to eating roasted pig on a spit to desperately seeking the village recipe for bootleg liquor. As the Wilson-Hoff family struggled to stay sane (and warm), what they found was much deeper and bigger than themselves.
