The Outrun

NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING SAOIRSE RONAN
WITH A NEW AFTERWORD FROM THE AUTHOR

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE AND THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE

After spending her twenties in London, Amy Liptrot returns to her home in Orkney where she comes to terms with the addiction that has consumed the past decade of her life. On the remote island, Amy spends her mornings swimming in the cold sea, her days observing wildlife, and her nights searching the sky for any signs of the Northern Lights. She soon discovers how the natural world can restore life, heal old wounds and renew hope.

Amy Liptrot has published her work with various magazines, journals and blogs and she has written a regular column for Caught by the River, out of which The Outrun has emerged. As well as writing for major newspapers including the Guardian and the Observer, Amy has worked as an artist's model, a trampolinist and in a shellfish factory. The Outrun was awarded the 2016 Wainwright Prize and the 2017 PEN Ackerley Prize and was shortlisted for the 2016 Wellcome Prize and the 2017 Ondaatje Prize.

@amy_may

ISBN: 9781805301127
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: September 12, 2024

A lyrical, brave memoir. It's Liptrot's aptitude for marrying her inner-space with wild outer-spaces that makes her such a compelling writer . . . I enjoyed this book enormously The sheer sensuality of Liptrot's prose and her steely resolve immediately put her right up there with the best of the best. Liptrot is an Orcadian warrior with the breeze in her blood and poetry in her fingers, and The Outrun may even be a future classic. Wherever she journeys next, you will want to go with her An exhilarating memoir . . . Anyone who has ever been unhappy or unwise will find much that resonates in this powerful, beautiful writing An uncompromising account of addiction and recovery played out against the blasted fields of Orkney. Liptrot's writing is strong and sure. The Outrun is a bright addition to the exploding genre of writing about place and our place in the natural world Remarkable . . . a meditative interior journey which Liptrot elevates to an art An unflinching examination of trauma, addiction and the restorative power of the natural world . . . It is a wild, wind-lashed book, and you come away from reading with the taste of salt spray on your lips Brilliant . . . one of the most scabrously honest, sassy and moving books about addiction and recovery that I have read An astonishingly beautiful book. Amy makes most nature writing seem flat and pedestrian. Her account of her addiction and recovery is electric, sexy, immediate and raw, leaving the reader reeling in her wake . . . This is a luminous, life-affirming book, and I have no doubt that I'll be pressing it into people's hands for years to come There is a great deal of frank, flinch-making writing in this book, but it is always balanced by a sublimity and graciousness that is rare. This is a bold-hearted and brave-minded book. It is both terribly sad and awfully affecting. I look forward to its presence on some prize lists Clean, clear and impressive . . . a sensuous book, full of summer nights and winter water. Liptrot swims, walks, lives alone on uninhabited islands and observes. And from that comes a portrait of the natural world she is absorbed into