When I Ran Away

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9/11
9/11 Twin Towers grief shock New York London Staten Island
911
911 Twin Towers grief shock New York London Staten Island
A01=Ilona Bannister
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Americans in London emigration belonging isolation cultural confusion immigrants class privilege
Author_Ilona Bannister
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Category1=Fiction
Category=FA
Category=FBA
childbirth trauma c-sections breastfeeding reality
contemporary life New York London married life suburbs child rearing single parenting
Contemporary women's lives women's relationships marriage family motherhood
COP=United Kingdom
Dead to Me
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
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eq_fiction
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eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
Eurovision
Five intense gripping psychological thriller
Language_English
Little Fires Everywhere
London
love story
mental health post natal depression post traumatic stress disorder grief loss PTSD PND
Motherland TV Catastrophe Sharon Horgan
New York
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
Real Housewives
reality shows
Reese Witherspoon
romance
softlaunch
Such a Fun Age

Product details

  • ISBN 9781529352696
  • Weight: 228g
  • Dimensions: 134 x 216mm
  • Publication Date: 12 May 2022
  • Publisher: John Murray Press
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
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'Smart, brave and often very funny . . . profoundly moving' Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus

T
his morning Gigi left her husband and children.

Now she's watching Real Housewives and drinking wine in a crummy hotel room, trying to work out how she got here.

When the Twin Towers collapsed, Gigi Stanislawski fled her office building and escaped lower Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry. Among the crying, ash-covered and shoeless passengers, Gigi, unbelievably, found someone she recognised - the guy with pink socks and a British accent - from the coffee shop across from her office. Together she and Harry Harrison make their way to her parents' house where they watch the television replay the planes crashing for hours, and she waits for the phone call from her younger brother that never comes. And after Harry has shared the worst day of her life, it's time for him to leave.

Ten years later, Gigi, now a single mother consumed with bills and unfulfilled ambitions, bumps into Harry again and this time they fall deeply in love. When they move to London it feels like a chance for the happy ending she never dared to imagine. But it also highlights the differences in their class and cultures, which was something they laughed about until it wasn't funny anymore; until the traumatic birth of their baby leaves Gigi raw and desperately missing her best friends and her old life in New York.

As Gigi grieves for her brother and rages at the unspoken pain of motherhood, she realises she must somehow find a way back - not to the woman she was but to the woman she wants to be.


An unforgettable novel about love - for our partners, our children, our mothers, and ourselves - pushed to its outer limits.

Ilona Bannister was a dual qualified US attorney and UK immigration solicitor before she started writing fiction. Her first novel, When I Ran Away, was developed on Faber Academy's Work in Progress course. Ilona's experiences as a mother, lawyer, and an American transplant in Britain are reflected in her novels. Although she will always be a New Yorker at heart, Ilona's home is in London with her husband and young sons.

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