Run Me to Earth (Yoon) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Richly layered…. Throughout the novel, beauty and violence coexist in a universe that seems by turns cruel and wondrous…. Yoon has stitched an intense meditation on the devastating nature of war and displacement (Editor's Choice).
New York Times Book Review


Spellbinding…. With his panoramic vision of the displacements of war, Yoon reminds us of the people never considered or accounted for in the halls of power.
Washington Post


[A] gorgeous book about the bonds of friendship and the ruptures of war. Even more significantly, in telling the stories of a trio of Laotian teens, it inverts and reorients the American war story…. Yoon is a master of subtle storytelling often leaving powerful emotions unexpressed, violent acts undetailed.
Los Angeles Times


Yoon's artfully orchestrated narrative illuminates this loudest, harshest, most chaotic of situations with restraint and elegance, finding and tracing an emotional thread that weaves the story into the reader's heart…. This unique work of historical fiction could not be more timely, or more timeless.
Minneapolis Star Tribune


[Yoon] writes with a soft, measured hand. He calmly builds memorable scenes even when events turn violent.
Associated Press


Yoon’s greatest skill lies in crafting subtle moments that underline the strange and specific sadness inherent to trauma…. As children around the world continue to grow up surrounded by violence and war, authors like Yoon seek to understand how experiencing those horrors shapes the adults they eventually become. And in Run Me to Earth, those horrors are scattered like unexploded bombs, waiting to go off at any time.
Time


Engrossing and luminous…. Yoon crafts an exceptionally human and poignant story.
Newsweek


This story of three Laotian orphans making their way through their war-torn world in the 1960s asks important questions about what it means to feel safe, and to call a place home.
Vogue


Run Me to Earth isn’t trying to educate or do the work of scholars and teachers; it has its own agenda. Art cannot supplant history, but it can amplify it.
New Republic


Yoon asks whether anyone can truly survive the ruins of war in this sparely written gem.… Yoon’s eloquent, sensitive character study… illustrates how the horrors of the past can linger…. This is a finely wrought tale about courage and endurance.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) Yoon, ever the elegant and penetrating writer, coolly delivers a devastating sense of what it’s like to be in the midst of war…. Yoon, ever the elegant and penetrating writer, coolly delivers a devastating sense of what it’s like to be in the midst of war
Library Journal


(Starred review) Yoon again exemplifies his unparalleled ability to create a quietly spectacular narrative that reveals the unfathomable worst and unwavering best of humanity; the result here provides mesmerizing gratification.
Booklist


(Starred review) [Yoon is] stretching his abilities while still writing with deliberate, almost vigilant care…. [His] imaginative prose and affection for his characters make the story… [a]nother masterpiece in miniature about the unpredictable directions a life can take.
Kirkus Reviews