From award-winning author Paul Yoon comes a “spellbinding” (The Washington Post) novel about three kids orphaned in 1960s Laos–and how their destinies are entwined across decades, anointed by Hernan Diaz as “one of those rare novels that stays with us to become a standard with which we measure other books.” Alisak, Prany, and Noi–three orphans united by devastating loss–must do what is … loss–must do what is necessary to survive the perilous landscape of 1960s Laos. When they take shelter in a bombed out field hospital, they meet Vang, a doctor dedicated to helping the wounded at all costs. Soon the teens are serving as motorcycle couriers, delicately navigating their bikes across the fields filled with unexploded bombs, beneath the indiscriminate barrage from the sky.
In a world where the landscape and the roads have turned into an ocean of bombs, we follow their grueling days of rescuing civilians and searching for medical supplies, until Vang secures their evacuation on the last helicopters leaving the country. It’s a move with irrevocable consequences–and sets them on disparate and treacherous paths across the world.
Spanning decades, this “richly layered” (The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice) book weaves together storylines laced with beauty and cruelty. Paul Yoon’s “greatest skill lies in crafting subtle moments that underline the strange and specific sadness inherent to trauma” (Time) and this book is a breathtaking historical feat and a fierce study of the powers of hope, perseverance, and grace.
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If you truly believe in the transformative power of literature then you must read this book. Run Me to Earth is a genuine masterpiece; fierce, tender, wise, earth-shattering, pulsating with love and hope.
With Run Me to Earth, Paul Yoon proves, yet again, that he is amaster at finding depth of emotion in formal restraint and discoveringthe timeless core in the most urgent issues of our day. This is one ofthose rare novels that stays with us to become, over the years, astandard with which we measure other books.
A very sad story based on the civil war in Laos during the Vietnam War era, a little known piece of history. The unprecedented nine-year, illegal American bombing campaign, including millions of cluster bombs, killed thousands of civilians and destroyed the lives of those who remained. Unexploded cluster bombs continue to kill and maim to this day, particularly children. This spare and beautifully written novel follows three orphaned teenage friends during and after the war.
This novel starts out in Laos in 1969 and revolves around three orphan teenagers. Prany, his younger sister Noi and their friend Alisak. We are quite quickly immersed into the storyline of these three as they ride their motorcycles across bomb laden fields. They have been hired by Yang, the medical doctor at the field hospital, to run errands, fetch medical supplies, etc back and forth from one field hospital to another. The teenagers love the thrill of riding the motorcycles and the money that they are being paid as well as the food and shelter that the hospital provides.
The novel is written through the voices of the characters, back and forth, past through present. I did have some problem with the flow, it was not always easy to follow and because we visit the same times/places with each character I found it repetitive at times. This isn’t an easy book to read, there is so much sadness and death. The civilians are the ones who must suffer while their homes are being bombed, their fields decimated and they find themselves homeless and starving. They are often apolitical but are forced to choose a side in order to live or die. Many just want things to go back to the way they were.
I marked many passages in this book, here is one that was especially heartbreaking. Noi is speaking as if from a dream “She wondered, too, what proof of herself, of them, would remain in this house after they were gone. The motorcycles, perhaps. The piano with its loose panel and those pouches and their fingerprints on each and every key they touched but never pressed down. There was the dirt stain from her shirt against a closet wall as she and her brother sought cover from a bomb. The mop she used in the ward without realizing how bloody the water was until she saw it all over her palms”.
Later in the book we will find out what happened to these characters and how they were forever linked to each other. The novel is sparse but beautifully written, I can tell that the author poured his heart into it.
I read historical fiction because I love to learn about places that I’ve never visited. The area in Laos where the story takes place is hilly with many pine trees. The “Plain of Jars” is described as the location of thousands of stone jars, scattered around the foothills. Their history dates back to the Iron Age about 500 BC. There is also mention of old statues of Budda which have fallen or been bombed and now lie in the forest covered by vegetation. Yet the people endure, they still consider this their home and hope for peace.
I received an ARC of this novel directly from the publisher. It is set to publish January 28, 2020 by Simon and Schuster.