Paul Yoon’s novel, Run Me to the Earth, begins in the 1960s in Laos during the Vietnam War. The author’s note at the beginning sets the stage for three orphans, Alisak, Prany, and Noi, who learn to navigate their motorcycles between the unexploded cluster bombs or “bombies” to help Vang, a doctor dedicated to helping the wounded. They run missions helping rescue the injured and finding medical supplies.
The book begins in an old farmhouse with the three friends asking each other where they go at night. Prany chooses a very large ship while his sister Noi wants to be where there is a very large fireplace. Pressured to come up with an answer Alisak says, “I go to the desert.” The question of where they go in the evenings or in their dreams is an effort to take their minds off the detonation flashes that become closer and louder and the growing number of suffering people. On other nights they name other places, but never home.
Vang helps them evacuate on the last helicopters leaving the country, and they begin separate treks finding their way in other places. The body of the book follows the three as they diverge, making their way in worlds as strange to them as the one littered with “bombies” until the last chapter finds Alisak in Sa Tuna, Spain in 2018.
The title comes from a W. S. Merwin quote, “I have worn the fur of a wolf and the shepherd’s dogs have run me to the earth.” I read the book, to be released January 28, in an advance reading copy furnished by Net Galley. While the book is fictional, the truth in it is unmistakable as the reader dodges land mines with the orphans on their motorcycles and follows with their escape from the land, their lives marked by uncertainty even after they are away from the war zone. The book is not a light read, but the writing is beautiful with a vivid picture of what it would be like to live daily in a war-torn area and the difficulty of fitting in somewhere else after escaping.