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Runaway by Alice Munro

A short story collection about love and betrayal

CBC Books Posted: Feb 07, 2017 11:16 AM EST | Last Updated: May 14

The incomparable Alice Munro's bestselling and rapturously acclaimedRunawayis a book of extraordinary stories about love and its infinite betrayals and surprises.

In Munro's hands, the people she writes about women of all ages and circumstances, and their friends, lovers, parents, and children become as vivid as our own neighbours. It is her miraculous gift to make these stories as real and unforgettable as our own. (From Penguin Canada)

Runawaywon the Giller Prize in 2004.

Alice Munro, Canadian author who mastered the short story, dead at 92

Literary legend Alice Munro died on May 13, 2024 at the age of 92. The Canadian writer is revered worldwide as a master of the short story, with 14 acclaimed collections and a Nobel Prize the 13th woman and second Canadian, after Saul Bellows, to ever receive that honour.

Munro's work has won two Scotiabank Giller Prizes, three Governor General's Literary Awards and the Man Booker International Prize. Her first book,Dance of the Happy Shades, was released in 1968, and she continued to write stories, often contributing to The New Yorker, until retiring in 2013. In books likeLives of Girls and Women,The Love of a Good WomanandRunaway, Munro captured the inner lives of men and women in rural Canada. Her work is inspired by her own upbringing in Wingham, Ont.

Read an excerpt | Author interviews | More about this book

From the book

For five years Robin had been doing this. One play every summer. It had started when she was living in Stratford, training to be a nurse. She went with a fellow student who had a couple of free tickets from her aunt, who worked on costumes. The girl who had the tickets was bored sick it was King Lear so Robin had kept quiet about how she felt. She could not have expressed it anyway she would rather have gone away from the theater alone, and not had to talk to anybody for at least twenty-four hours. Her mind was made up then to come back. And to come by herself.

From Runaway by Alice Munro 2004. Published by Penguin Canada.

Author interviews

5 coolest things Alice Munro told CBC about her writing

8 years ago

2:04

Over the years, Alice Munro was interviewed by the CBC many times. Here are some memorable moments.

Writers and Company52:46Alice Munro on Runaway

A rare conversation with Canadas first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. In this interview from 2004, Eleanor speaks with Munro about her Giller Prize-winning collection of short stories, Runaway.