Book Summary and Reviews of The Runner by Scarlett Thomas

The Runner by Scarlett Thomas

The Runner

by Scarlett Thomas

  • Publishes:
  • Nov 3, 2026, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

He's running for his life. And he's running out of time.

Jay has been hunted since he was twenty years old. A contract on his life has been traded like a commodity, rising and falling with Bitcoin for decades. On the run once again with no passport and airmiles as his only currency, Jay will have to choose between love and survival, and run for his life.

While staying at an all-inclusive resort, surviving off of the points he accrued in a previous, more successful life, Jay meets Ellie, a beguiling fellow runner who may even be faster than he is, and is harboring secrets of her own. When an assassin appears poolside, Jay is on the run again, but this time with Ellie, as they find themselves on a catamaran helmed by a sinister and reckless crew.

The Runner is about high-finance, con artists, the Book of Jonah, ultramarathons, and how falling in love can change everything. Darkly funny, sexy, and exciting, Scarlett Thomas—author of the "work of gonzo genius" (The New York Times), The Sleepwalkers—transports readers from the sun-drenched roads of Cyprus to the rain slicked streets of Kent in this high-concept literary thriller.

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This information about The Runner 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.

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More Information

Scarlett Thomas was born in London. She is the author of highly acclaimed contemporary cult novels including The End of Mr. Y, which was longlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction; Oligarchy; The Seed Collectors; PopCo; The Sleepwalkers; and the Worldquake series of middle grade books. Her novels have sold over half a million copies worldwide and been translated into twenty-six languages. Scarlett is professor of creative writing and contemporary fiction at the University of Kent. Find out more at ScarThomas.com.

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