The Runaways
A Novel
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
“A story for anyone who has ever felt lost, isolated, or fantasized about reinventing herself — and isn't that all of us?"—Jenny Rosenstrach, New York Times Bestselling author of Dinner: A Love Story
Ivy is on the run. She is finally ready to trade in a dead-end future of college debt and family obligations for the thrill of a fresh start. But when she finds herself in an isolated cabin in the Poconos, she realizes that starting over is more difficult than she thought.
Especially when a stranger stumbles into her hiding place.
Mary Ellen is attempting to reinvent herself. Dissatisfied with her career and family life, Mary Ellen is finally pursuing art, something she has put aside for years. So, when she arrives at a cabin in the woods for an artist’s retreat and finds a teenage girl instead, she realizes this is her chance to start new.
But in the midst of a dangerous snow storm, the truth waits to be set free.
In this coming-of-age meets coming-of-middle-age novel, Ivy and Mary Ellen must confront what kind of people they want to be—and when it really matters, what kind of people they are.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A remote home in the frigid wilderness is the setting of the insightful latest from Terjanian (The Objects of Her Affection). Teen Ivy, who dreams of being a Montana smoke jumper, steals a car to get away from the dead-end town of Good Hope, N.Y., her sick mother, and the black hole of grinding poverty that clouds her future. After wrecking the car spectacularly, she hides out in a remote house built of sleek glass in the woods between the Poconos and the Catskills. Mary Ellen is running away too, temporarily. As marketing v-p of a powerful pharmaceutical company, she's long put aside her dreams of being an artist, but when she takes a photography class, her teacher, seeing her potential, offers her the use of her vacation home (where there is no landline or cell service). She takes her up on it, and she's shocked to find Ivy there. Prickly Ivy and earnest Mary Ellen slip on different personas, their drama playing out against a cold, stark, and unforgiving setting that highlights the vast distance between them and building toward a terrible event that will test them both. No easy answers are offered, but Terjanian's entertaining and atmospheric exploration of class, choice (or lack of), and hope will undoubtedly speak to readers.
