Runaway: Stories [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Alice Munro (Author), Kymberly Dakin (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2004

The matchless Munro makes art out of everyday lives in this dazzling new collection. At its centre are three stories connected into one marvellously rich narrative about Juliet - who escapes from teaching at a girls' school and throws herself into a wild and passionate love match. Here are men and women of wildly different times and circumstances, their lives made vividly palpable by the nuance and empathy of Munro's writing. "Runaway" is about the power and betrayals of love, about lost children, lost chances. There is pain and desolation beneath the surface, like a needle in the heart, which makes these stories more powerful and compelling than anything she has written.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Runaway is so good I don't want to talk about it. Quotation can't do the book justice, and neither can synopsis. The way to do it justice is to read it. Read Munro! Read Munro!' Jonathan Franzen, New York Times Book Review" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Alice Munro is the author of The Beggar Maid (shortlisted for the Booker Prize) a novel and several outstanding collections of stories, including Open Secrets (winner of the WHSmith Literary Award), and Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. Her work appears regularly in The New Yorker and she is a winner of the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Prize in her native Canada. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Chivers Sound Library; Unabridged edition (November 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792733673
• ISBN-13: 978-0792733676
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alice Munro grew up in Wingham, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario. She has published eleven previous books.During her distinguished career she has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, including the W.H. Smith Prize, the National Book Circle Critics Award, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, the Lannan Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and the Rea Award for the Short Story. In Canada, she has won the Governor General's Award, the Giller Prize, the Trillium Book Award, and the Libris Award.Alice Munro and her husband divide their time between Clinton, Ontario, and Comox, British Columbia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of Alice Munro, December 19, 2004

By 

Patricia Nairne (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Runaway (Hardcover)

I borrowed "Runaway" from the library. Now that I have read it, I have no choice but to go out and buy it. One read will never suffice.
On the surface the stories seem straight forward, perhaps more so than Munro's other recent books and yet they are rich and complex.
These are stories of great humanity. Outcomes are not predictable and the smallest of decisions can change a life forever. A word not said, a second glance not taken, have huge consequences. The characters and plots do not follow a predictable course as they would in a lesser fiction.
Even the less sympathetic characters are drawn in shades of grey and we feel their pain and humanity. In the title story, a bully of a husband is a complex man who may or may not destroy, depending upon so little. We hold our breath in dread, hoping that those around him tread lightly.
This collection of stories is simply breathtaking and deserves to be savoured again and again.

.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction to short story reading, April 9, 2005

By 

William Curtis Lowton "curtis-in-winnipeg" (Winnipeg, Manitoba) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Runaway (Hardcover)

I have always professed a distaste for books of short stories. I love a novel that can swallow me up and keep me interested for days on end. I requested this book for Christmas, unaware that it was actually a book of short stories. Upon reading it, I have changed my mind about short story reading. Each story offers a unique and interesting snapshot into some character's life, and Munro executes these snapshots with professionalism and talent. After reading this book, I went on to read Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize-winning Interpreter of Maladies, and I can now appreciate the power of authors who can create SEVERAL interesting and powerful stories within the confines of one book. Recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First but not last, February 13, 2005

By 

Susie Sharon (Orleans, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Runaway (Hardcover)

This is my first book by Alice Munro. I loved it! It's so rare to read short-stories that are so well-crafted. This book made me long for more information about each character yet, at the same time, you don't want to know... You kind of want to imagine for yourself what their lives are going to be, or what really happened. And that is the mark of a truly great short-story.

Read it!