Wednesday February 5, 2025: Maximum Shelf: Run Away With Me (original) (raw)

Brian Selznick (photo: Brittany Cruz-Fejeran)

Brian Selznick's books have sold millions of copies, garnered countless awards worldwide, and been translated into more than 35 languages. His genre-breaking, New York Times bestselling trilogy, which began with Caldecott Medal-winner The Invention of Hugo Cabret_, was followed by_ Wonderstruck and The Marvels_. He and his husband divide their time between Brooklyn, N.Y. and La Jolla, Calif. You can find more information in Scholastic's_ Mediaroom.

Selznick's debut novel for young adults, Run Away with Me (Scholastic Press, April 1, 2025), is an unforgettable coming-of-age love story inspired by the author's time in Rome during the Covid-19 pandemic. Selznick spoke to Shelf Awareness about how his visit to the ancient city inspired the book and how he went about creating it.

How would you describe Run Away with Me to readers?

The book is a love story between Danny, an American boy, and Angelo, an Italian boy. During the summer of 1986, Danny is in Rome with his mom, who is working on a project about a mysterious old book. While there, he meets Angelo, who seems to know a thousand stories about Rome and every hidden corner of the city. Woven into the narrative are three other love stories, one in the 1600s, one in 1900, and one in 1940. Ultimately the book is about the ability to find love and joy even when the society in which you live doesn't want you to.

In the book's acknowledgements, you talk about how Run Away with Me was inspired by your time in Rome.

My husband is a historian and a professor, and during the pandemic he won something called the Rome Prize for a project he was writing about an Italian architect. We were brought to Rome in January of 2021 for nine months, along with the other winners and their families. The city, like all cities around the world, was mostly shut down, so we had the place almost entirely to ourselves. I was often the only person besides the guards at the Sistine Chapel, and my husband and I found ourselves pretty much alone in the Pantheon and the Colosseum. It was an extraordinary experience. We often traveled with the other Rome Prize winners, who were all studying fascinating things about the city. They'd share their knowledge with us, and I kept thinking, "That should be in a book!" Run Away with Me is that book. It brings together all my favorite places and experiences in the city, as seen through the lens of two teenage boys experiencing love for the first time.

There is so much reverence for art, architecture, and history in this book. How did it feel to use them as a launchpad for your own creativity and then weave in fictional elements?

Everywhere you go in Rome, history is made visible, from the stones in the street to the paintings on the church walls. There's a great word, "palimpsest," which means "something that bears the traces of its own past," sort of like the ability to look back in time. All of Rome is a palimpsest. You can see modern life, and elements of history going back thousands and thousands of years, pretty much everywhere you go. I wanted to capture this feeling in the book.

Why did you choose to bookend this novel with your art, as opposed to weaving it into the story itself, as you've done with many of your previous works?

Originally, I wanted to have no drawings in the book, which would have been radical for me, since all my books so far have had pictures. But my editor David Levithan felt strongly that images could benefit the story. We came up with the idea of opening the book with a long visual sequence through an almost empty version of Rome, much like I experienced it during the pandemic (though the story does not take place during the pandemic). I realized this could give all readers the feeling that they've been through the city, even those who have never been there. So, when you read the story, and I mention the Pantheon with the round hole (or "oculus") in the ceiling, you'll remember having seen it in the opening sequence. Basically, what I am doing is using the opening sequence to give everyone a memory of having been in Rome. As for the end sequence, David and I thought that a mysterious visual conclusion might work really well. I always suggest to people when they first pick up the book to try not to flip to the end to look at the drawings. I know it's hard not to look, but I think it might work best for those drawings to come as a surprise at the end.

What do you hope readers will take away from Run Away with Me ?

I started writing this book very much aware of the rise in censorship that's happening with books about and by queer people. There seems to be a belief that if we can keep books about queerness away from young people, no young people will grow up to be gay. But, of course, that's not how it works at all. We've always existed, and we always will. We have always managed to find ways to be with each other, to discover that we are not alone in the world, and to learn that we have a history and a future. I wanted to write a story that illuminated this idea, which is why my four love stories each take place in a time when there is no acceptance or real public understanding of queerness. Things were changing in 1986 when the main story takes place, which I touch on in the book, but it was still something that was hidden or (mostly) kept out of the popular culture. I wanted to let young people today know that even if it doesn't seem like it's possible, your community is out there, waiting for you. We all deserve to be happy, to find our communities, and to fall in love.

What are you working on now?

I really loved writing this love story. It's my first book for a young adult audience, and I've decided that I'd like to write more. I've begun my next romance, which is set in a different time and a different city than Run Away with Me. It's been really exciting to start fresh with two new young people who need each other more than they first realize.

Is there anything else you'd like readers to know?

There are lots of great organizations dedicated to helping young queer people, and everyone who wants a safe place to explore their identities. Two of my favorites were started by a friend of mine, the extraordinary Celeste Lescene. They are the Trevor Project, which has counselors you can speak to for free 24 hours a day, and the Future Perfect Project, which is dedicated to producing and facilitating "creative workshops, media projects, and performance opportunities for LGBTQIA+ youth & allies, ages 13-22." --Lynn Becker