The Runaway

In this compelling debut from a promising new voice, Wong takes reader to Llandymna, a small, isolated Welsh village. The story opens with young Rhiannon deciding to run away from her Aunty Di. She thinks that someone from the village will see and stop her, but instead she finds her way out and to a new home in Dyrys Wood. Diana, Rhiannon’s aunt, recruits Tom Davies to help search for the missing girl, but as the days drag on, the people of Llandymna become increasingly nervous about what the search might dig up from the town’s past. Wong prose captures the whimsical quality of Rhiannon’s fluctuating mental state as she searches for her place in the world. Diana, a woman who prides herself on always being in control, finds it hard to maintain her reputation for diligence when she’s forced to declare Rhiannon missing. While in Dyrys Wood, Rhiannon loses herself in the world of stories that her new acquaintance Maebh O’Donnell has told her, as well as the stories that she creates herself. Rhiannon’s disappearance does more than crack Diana’s fragile façade of control; it sets in motion the unraveling of secrets that the town of Llandymna would rather not remember. Wong does a brilliant job of wedding the tone of the writing to that of Rhiannon’s worldview, taking any route possible to uncover the dangerous side of a town and the trial-and-error nature of learning how to stand on one’s own. (Apr.)