When I Ran Away
This morning Gigi left her husband and children.
Now she's watching Real Housewives and drinking wine in a crummy hotel room, trying to work out how she got here.
When the Twin Towers collapsed, Gigi Stanislawski fled her office building and escaped lower Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry. Among the crying, ash-covered and shoeless passengers, Gigi, unbelievably, found someone she recognised - the guy with pink socks and a British accent - from the coffee shop across from her office. Together she and Harry Harrison make their way to her parents' house where they watch the television replay the planes crashing for hours, and she waits for the phone call from her younger brother that never comes. And after Harry has shared the worst day of her life, it's time for him to leave.
An unforgettable novel about love - for our partners, our children, our mothers, and ourselves - pushed to its outer limits.
What People Are Saying
“When I Ran Away...navigat[es} the guilt and the grief and the rage women actually feel while trying to keep things from falling apart.”
— NPR
“Smart, brave, and often very funny”
— Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus
“An unflinching glimpse of new motherhood”
— Publishers Weekly
“Furious and tender”
-Pandora Sykes
“Powerful and compassionate”
— Daily Mail
“Wise, big-hearted, triumphant”
— Emily Giffin, bestselling author of The Lies that Bind
“Both heartbreaking and funny...I adored this brave debut.”
— Ella Berman, bestselling author of The Comeback