Books like Run

Run is a 2007 novel by American author Ann Patchett. It was her first novel after the widely successful Bel Canto (2001).

This novel tells the story of Bernard Doyle, an Irish Catholic Boston politician. He and wife Bernadette have one biological son and later adopt African-American brothers Tip and Teddy. (The adoptees' names were given to them by the Doyles as a tribute to the Massachusetts politicians Thomas "Tip" O'Neill and Edward "Teddy" Kennedy.) Four years later, Doyle loses Bernadette to cancer. Sixteen years after his wife's death, Tip and Teddy are university students. Bernard, the former mayor of Boston, has invited them to a Jesse Jackson lecture and a reception afterward. Tip is pushed out of the path of an oncoming vehicle by a woman the family believes is a stranger. The novel's plot centers around that woman's identity and that of her 11-year-old daughter Kenya, who comes to stay with the Doyles. Interracial adoption, family allegiances and rivalries, and Boston’s notoriously complex political and racial history come into play, as does the role of religious faith in each family member's life.