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Published Feb 2017
288 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
From the critically acclaimed author of Be Safe I Love You comes a dark and breathtaking novel of love, friendship, and survival set in the red light district of Athens in the 1980s that Garth Greenwall calls "a ferocious, brilliant book."
Running brings together an ensemble of outsiders who get by as "runners" - hustlers who sell tourists on low-end accommodations for a small commission and a place to stay.
Bridey Sullivan, a young American woman who has fled a peculiar and traumatic upbringing in Washington State, takes up with a queer British couple, the poet Milo Rollack and Eton drop-out Jasper Lethe. Slipping in and out of homelessness, addiction, and under-the-table jobs, they create their own kind of family as they struggle to survive.
Jasper's madness and consequent death frame a narrative of emotional intensity. In its midst this trio become linked to an act of terrorism. The group then splinters, taking us from Athens to the cliffs of the Mediterranean, and to modern-day New York.
Whether in the red light district of Athens or in the world of fire jumpers in the Pacific Northwest, we are always in a space of gorgeously wrought otherness. Running shows novelist Cara Hoffman to be writing at the peak of her craft.
"Starred Review. Hoffman is fearless and trusting of her readers, and her precise prose captures the novel's many settings - Greece, Washington State, New York City - and her characters' feelings and actions, vividly." - Booklist
"Excellent ... Hoffman beautifully conveys the depths of Milo's longing as well the personalities of his motley crew. " - Publishers Weekly
"Beautiful and atmospheric... A haunting novel, original and deeply sad." - Kirkus
"This fascinating mix of youth, violence, and romantic and familial relations, loaded with socioeconomic issues, makes for a beautiful read. Recommended for readers of travel literature, coming-of-age fiction, and LGBTQ stories." - Library Journal
"This uncompromising, incendiary novel holds true to the same fierce commitments as its haunting, haunted characters: it follows risk beyond all rules, and makes a kind of meaning I haven't seen before. Caught between acts of radical violence and radical love, Hoffman's poets and conmen are lost souls with no interest in being found, a queer family bound by affinity and nerve. I fell in love with them, and with this ferocious, brilliant book." - Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You
"Strange and shocking and sad - Hoffman's language is so deft and precise. I love the empathy with which she writes about the lives of outsiders, depicting the tenderness and fragility of their friendships so beautifully. Running is wonderful." - Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train
"Running is an unstoppable spark racing along a fuse. There is no escaping the heat, grime, or glittering promise of violence of Athens's underbelly, but the bond between three young drifters is infused with moments of transcendence. I devoured this beautiful book, and Hoffman's writing is a revelation." - Rae Meadows, author of I Will Send Rain
"Reading this novel was a conversion experience. I was immediately with the narrator, and I didn't care where we were going. Every sentence lit up with silver rain and smoke and the beauty of arriving in a foreign city and the defiance of needing almost nothing - and how strangely impossible it is when you lose that. Running is like taking a trip into a story you never knew you needed. You should take it, at once." - Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night
This information about Running was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Constance Faulk
Cara Hoffman is the author of the critically acclaimed novel So Much Pretty. She teaches writing and literature at Bronx Community College and lives in New York City.
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