The Outrun
Amy Liptrot
“I’ve swapped disco lights for celestial lights but I’m still surrounded by dancers. I am orbited by sixty-seven moons”
Available as Paperback, Paperback, Downloadable audio, eBook
Film tie-in paperback edition of the exhilarating nature memoir about recovering from alcoholism in Orkney - now a major film starring Saoirse Ronan
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.
“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”
Will Self
guardian
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“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”
new Statesman
“An exhilarating memoir … Anyone who has ever been unhappy or unwise will find much that resonates in this powerful, beautiful writing”
Cathy Rentzenbrink
stylist
“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”
observer
“Remarkable … a meditative interior journey which Liptrot elevates to an art”
spectator
Amy Liptrot
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
Amy Liptrot has written a piece for the Guardian on the strangness and delight of seeing her memoir The Outrun adapted into the new film starring Saorise Ronan.
“Late at night, in bed with my laptop close to my face, I watch movie star Saoirse Ronan’s face reflected in her onscreen laptop, and I am looking into a weird mirror. The character she’s playing is based on me, and making this film has been like going through the looking glass.
One morning earlier in the year, I clicked a link and watched Saoirse at the farm where I grew up, in a boilersuit, with blue dye in her hair, rolling a cigarette. My toddler son pointed at the screen: ‘Mummy!’ My essence had been recreated authentically enough to fool my child and to confuse and thrill me.”
Amy Liptrot
Guardian
Amy Liptrot on writing her way home
“I enjoyed this book enormously, even as I worried about its brave but vulnerable author, struggling to reach the good life for which her parents once went in search.”
Will Self
The Guardian
“An incredibly effective portrait of a reeling mind”: the new film version of The Outrun, starring Saoirse Ronan, has premiered at Sundance, and the Guardian calls it “a moving and delicate adaptation”.
Guardian
The Outrun is a beautiful, inspiring book about living on the edge, about the pull between island & city, & about the ability of the sea, the land, the wind and the moon to restore life & renew hope
