Run

It is just a few weeks after Christmas, and the unforgiving New England weather has taken a turn for the worse. Doyle has dragged his reluctant sons, Tip and Teddy, to a speech by Jesse Jackson. Though his own political career is over, dealt a fatal blow by a family scandal, Doyle is still fired by Jackson's rhetoric and perplexed by his sons' indifference. The two boys, both adopted, are close enough in age to be taken for twins, but in character they couldn't be more different. Teddy - open, affectionate, the gentle dreamer - thinks he has found his calling in the Catholic Church. The elder by a year, Tip is more serious, reserving his own passionate interest for ichthyology: he is happiest alone in the warmth of his lab, labelling and categorising fish specimens. When they are involved in a violent accident in the treacherously icy road, the Doyles are forced for the first time to confront certain truths: about how the death of Bernadette, Doyle's beloved wife, has affected the family, and about the anonymous figure, never discussed, who is the boys' real mother. Full of warmth and humanity and singing, graceful prose, "Run" is a moving story about our fragile hopes and fears for our children and the lengths we will go to to protect our families. It is a stunning new novel from the prizewinning author of Bel Canto.