Another excellent book by Paul Yoon. Paul’s writing is amazing, his talent for creating characters that are so real and raw floors me with each new book I read from him. His stories are just as unique. He has become one of my favorite writers and I look forward to reading more from him.

Run Me to Earth has received some enthusiastic pre-publication buzz—and I want to open by saying that buzz is well deserved. At less than 300 pages, Run Me to Earth is a relatively quick read, but its characters and scope consistently invite the reader to slow down and to appreciate what author Paul Yoon has accomplished.

Run Me to Earth tells the story of three children in Laos, orphaned by war, who work together as couriers for a "freelance" field hospital run by a very independent doctor. As the war ends, the doctor arranges to have the children taken out of Laos in a final round of airlifts, but things don't go as planned and the three are separated. Run Me to Earth is the story of how their lives play out on multiple continents.

One of the beauties of Run Me to Earth is that each chapter has a different narrator, which lets the reader see the world from the perspective of each of the children and through the eyes of other characters. A not-quite-chronological structure emphasizes the composite nature of the narrative as the reader pieces together events, filling in gaps along the way. This structure feels particularly fitting for a novel that begins in the chaos of war.

Run me to Earth is definitely one of 2020's must-reads.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic review copy of this title. The opinions are my own.

That war is hell and not only for those who fight it with conventional weapons is brought vividly and beautifully to life in Paul Yoon’s Run Me to Earth. In writing that can be described only as gorgeous Yoon brings to life the characters of three teenagers and a doctor who spend the war in Laos in a structure converted to tend to the wounded and sick. The novel tells of their post-war fates in spare and empathetic pictures. Highly recommended.

Paul Yoon has taken a sad and sore subject for 1970’s Americans and rotated it to a realistic and compassionate angle that allows some degree of light in through the cracks of humanity.
The Vietnam War is a sad and lonely smear on America, affecting so many men and women who served their country then came home broken and crippled to an angry mob who blamed them individually for the actions of a political machine.
Paul’s book pulls back the curtain on the people who called the war-ravaged country their home. He doesn’t stop at the immediate danger and destruction of the war; he carries us forward with these Laotians through the broken years, the futile reach for wholeness, and the continually empty soul that these scarred individuals carried as their burden for decades.
Three young orphans volunteer at a local hospital, which in reality is an empty shelled-out home of an ostracized American soldier gone rogue. These kids don’t have moments of quiet to reflect on the homes they knew, loved and lost, but they do find a family and kinship in one another. All of their energy is required to assist and survive. As the Viet Cong moved in, the hurried escape of those who assisted the “enemy” is disjointed and impossible to retrace. Here lies the true solemnity of the book. The years of scars, of wondering, of looking for those they loved, the empty void that was caused in a matter of hours yet lasted an eternity, the understanding that the most painful part of man’s war is the silence afterward. This solemn read is for anyone who honors our history and hopes we learn from it, for anyone who loved and lost as a result of Vietnam, for anyone who marvels at the human spirit. I salute you, Paul Yoon, for your humanity.
(I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for making it available.)

I was particularly interested in the history of the war in Laos in the late 60’s/early 70’s because I had a good friend in college whose family left during the war to come to the US. A good look at the consequences of US overseas involvement especially relating to civilians.

Excellent. Yoon has a lot of talent, and with well-formed characters and a style that helps tell the story effectively, this works well. Recommended.

I really appreciate the advanced copy for review!!

Alisak, Prany, and Noi were paid in American dollars for helping keep the ward clean and for assisting people who were trying to save as many civilians as possible in a war that had been going on in various forms for most of their lives.

Alisak and Prany were 17 years old -in the fall- of 1969.
Noi was a year younger. They had spent three years surviving the rainy seasons and strangers. They wandered the country finding work where they could, ( riding motorbikes and helping at the hospital), avoiding the armies.
They often were jolted awake from the sound of bombers - as the war shifted boundaries endlessly.

“They stayed a full night once in the woods, sitting on the ground by their bikes and listening not to the rain, which fell silently, but to the endless torrent of the bombers somewhere above the canopy that seemed so close they kept expecting one to crash down on them”.

We follow the 3 orphan kids
during the 1960’s Laos.
Life was unbearable and murderous. The gorgeous prose - this historical fiction take takes us to the year 2018.

Vang Vieng was the medical doctor-dedicated to helping and wounded
“at all costs”.... that the kids reported to.
The thought of kids serving as motorcycle carriers during a horrific war - riding across fields filled with unexploded bomb‘s - their life in that much danger - was unheard of.
I guess that’s what the doctor meant by “at all costs”....
But.. Doctor Vang was a good man. Eventually he helps the kids leave the country. Journaling from country to country was not only confusing & exhausting... but frightening.

“This new world. Still afraid”.

The story spans decades...with gripping adventures- bursting with emotional gut-wrenching stories.
I also found myself wanting to know more about beautiful archaeological landscape of Laos. I stepped outside of the brutalities of war ( with kids) > something that never fails to tear my heart out, to look up more details about Phonsavan.... the capital of Xiangkhoang, Providence of Laos.
The country side is dominated by green hills and pine forests.
Phonsavan’s most famous attraction is the nearby ‘Plain of Jars’.
Thousands of stone jars - mostly sandstone are scattered around the upland valleys and lower foothills. They are visually so unique- beautiful... and the history fascinating dating back to the Iron Age - 500 BC.

In the authors notes - Paul Yoon acknowledges that he altered the geography of Laos and the timeline of the war - particularly the bombings on the Plain of Jars to fit the purpose of the story. It worked: mixing great storytelling with history - when it works - as this novel does - is my favorite way to learn new facts.

The prose was spare, fierce and gorgeous.
The journey we are taken on is indelibly drawn, with heroines fighting their way every step of every day....( haunting, brutal, & achingly beautiful), the earth itself rises up...and into our hearts.

This was my first book by Paul Yoon. I’ve wanted to read him for a long time.
I plan to work backwards and read his other books that I missed.

Thank you Simon & Schuster, Netgalley, and the gifted young author: Paul Yoon!!