Run Away With Me (publication day April 1, 2025) is my first book by author Brian Selznick, though I understand that his The Invention of Hugo Cabret is beloved by many.
Set in 1986, 16-year old Danny is living in a small apartment at a museum in Rome with his mother, an expert in ancient book restoration. He is used to exploring on his own, as they have lived all over the United States and in other countries while his mother works on different projects.
He doesn’t know Italian, but he meets Angelo, who at first I thought was a magical person, like an angel, because he knows so much about Rome and its history, its stories. But he is a real boy, another 16-year old who lives across the street from the museum where Danny and his mother live. Angelo tells Danny stories of the obelisks, including the one that is built atop an elephant, and of the museum where his mother works. They spend time in the cemetery where the Romantic poet John Keats is buried.
They fall in love, which Danny knows is limited, as each chapter begins with how many days he has left in Rome. They make a secret hideout in a small room in the museum where they can be really alone. And they learn of the stories of other men in love, including one pair who ran away to a new city where they could live as brothers in public and live their truth in private.
It is so beautifully written and atmospheric, full of the wonders of young love and the magic of an ancient city. And Selznick’s pencil drawings of many of the landmarks in the story are beautiful and add a lot. It made me want to go back to Rome to see more!
And it was completely weight-neutral, no negative descriptions of fat people.
Reading While Fat 