The Runaways

A remote home in the frigid wilderness is the setting of the insightful latest from Terjanian (The Objects of Her Affection). Teen Ivy, who dreams of being a Montana smoke jumper, steals a car to get away from the dead-end town of Good Hope, N.Y., her sick mother, and the black hole of grinding poverty that clouds her future. After wrecking the car spectacularly, she hides out in a remote house built of sleek glass in the woods between the Poconos and the Catskills. Mary Ellen is running away too, temporarily. As marketing v-p of a powerful pharmaceutical company, she’s long put aside her dreams of being an artist, but when she takes a photography class, her teacher, seeing her potential, offers her the use of her vacation home (where there is no landline or cell service). She takes her up on it, and she’s shocked to find Ivy there. Prickly Ivy and earnest Mary Ellen slip on different personas, their drama playing out against a cold, stark, and unforgiving setting that highlights the vast distance between them and building toward a terrible event that will test them both. No easy answers are offered, but Terjanian’s entertaining and atmospheric exploration of class, choice (or lack of), and hope will undoubtedly speak to readers. (Apr.)