Run - by Ann Patchett (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Engaging, surprising, provocative and moving...a thoroughly intelligent book, an intimate domestic drama that nonetheless deals with big issues touching us all: religion, race, class, politics and, above all else, family." -- Washington Post

From New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett comes an engrossing story of one family on one fateful night in Boston where secrets are unlocked and new bonds are formed.

Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving possessive and ambitions father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see is sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children--all his children--safe.

Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Run takes us from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard to a home for retired Catholic Priests in downtown Boston. It shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you've never even met. As an in her bestselling novel, Bel Canto, Ann Patchett illustrates the humanity that connects disparate lives, weaving several stories into one surprising and endlessly moving narrative. Suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.

From the Back Cover

Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children--all his children--safe.

Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Run shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you've never even met. Suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.

Review Quotes

"Ann Patchett can be counted on to deliver novels rich in imaginative bravado and psychological nuance." - Publishers Weekly

"Ms. Patchett comes home." - Wall Street Journal

"This author specializes in delving beneath the surface...RUN shimmers with its author's rarefied eloquence, and with the deep resonance of her insights." - New York Times

"Ann Patchett...has written a spectacular autumn book; moody and thoughtful, gentle in its handling of weighty topics, and quietly suspensful. [T]he ending is an emotionally poignant culmination." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"...full of affection and respect, for her characters and for the world, which is why reading her feels so elegant and so satisfying." - O magazine

"Ann Patchett serves up an emotionally generous fictional slice of urban Americana." - Elle

"This author specializes in delving beneath the surface . . . Run shimmers with its author's rarefied eloquence, and with the deep resonance of her insights." - New York Times

"Patchett's finest work . . . she made me love her characters just as much as she surely loves them herself. Run is dazzling from the start." - Chicago Tribune

"...a brilliant exploration of the true nature of parenthood." - Good Housekeeping

"Run is strongly recommended." - New York Magazine

"Run is deeply moving and absorbing... What Patchett does so well here - as in Bel Canto - is put together a group of disparate people into an unexpected situation and investigate the consequences... Patchett has once again written an intelligent, thoughtful novel that oozes emotional intensity. She is the kind of storyteller who makes the reader sad to come to the last page." - Financial Times

"Compelling." - Kirkus Reviews

"...engaging, surprising, provocative and moving...a thoroughly intelligent book, an intimate domestic drama that nonetheless deals with big issues touching us all: religion, race, class, politics and, above all else, family." - Washington Post