A History of Running Away
In 1982, Jasmine wants to box, but in 1980s Ireland boxing is illegal for girls. In 2012, a gynaecologist agonises about a job offer which would mean escape from the increasingly fraught atmosphere of her Dublin hospital. But what about her mother, stuck in a nursing home? And in Maryland, Ali, whose mother has recently died, hooks up with a biker gang to escape from grandparents she didn't know she had.
Paula McGrath lives in Dublin. Her first novel, Generation, was published in 2015. She has a background in English Literature and is currently a doctoral student at the University of Limerick. In another life she was a yoga teacher.
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.