The Outrun

8 hrs. 54 min.

Miscellaneous

Language Russian

Author Amy Liptrot

Narrator Nadezhda Vinokurova

Description

A literary debut by the author, journalist Amy Liptrot (born 1984), earned her the Wainwright Prize for the best nature book of 2016 and the British PEN Club prize for the best autobiography (PEN Ackerley Prize) in 2017. It’s the story of escaping noisy London for the tidal meadows of the Orkney Islands. Told in the form of an unguarded diary, it documents the heroine-narrator’s search for herself through struggling with false attachments (cigarettes—coca-cola—relationships—internet), which replaced city experiences with alcohol and drugs. Once, young Amy left a remote island of the archipelago in the north-east of Scotland to win the capital of the kingdom, adding to the ranks of freelance workers in the creative industries. Now she makes the journey back—discovering, along the way, the wild power of the Atlantic Ocean and reconciling the past with the present. What began as forced self-isolation turned into the birth of a new life. The book became a notable event in contemporary British prose, sparking a trend for the half-forgotten corner of the Scottish coast.