Book of the Year in the Irish Times
‘A wonderful storyteller’ Joseph O’Connor
On the quays of Dublin, Jasmine is running, training for a fight she can’t compete in. It’s 1982 and boxing is illegal for girls.
For Jasmine boxing is everything: after running away from home, and narrowly escaping a risky situation in London, it is all she has to claim as her own. But with a legal fight impossible, and a ghost from her past on her trail, where can it end?
A History of Running Away is a brilliantly written novel about growing up, starting over and learning to fight for yourself.
‘A wonderful storyteller’ Joseph O’Connor
On the quays of Dublin, Jasmine is running, training for a fight she can’t compete in. It’s 1982 and boxing is illegal for girls.
For Jasmine boxing is everything: after running away from home, and narrowly escaping a risky situation in London, it is all she has to claim as her own. But with a legal fight impossible, and a ghost from her past on her trail, where can it end?
A History of Running Away is a brilliantly written novel about growing up, starting over and learning to fight for yourself.
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Reviews
This beautifully written novel is urgently contemporary in its concerns but is also a quietly compelling exploration of the notions of home and belonging. Paula McGrath is a wonderful storyteller with a vivid sense of place and person
Depicts a brutal world with astonishing tenderness and builds a clever, intriguing story, creating memorable characters along the way
A thoroughly modern, engaging and sophisticated novel about women who reach for better lives and are forced to run away to achieve them
McGrath captures Dublin of the 1980s perfectly . . . Ambitious, both structurally and narratively, and elegantly written
Elegant . . . Compelling reading
The writing is fluid and accessible, the dialogue and setting authentic, proving Paula McGrath both a consummate storyteller and an excellent observer of human interactions
McGrath writes well and delivers some fine flourishes
A keen eye for both poignancy and humanity
Sparkling prose