Run Away With Me

"This is Brian Selznick’s first YA novel, and it is beautifully illustrated. It is a book that he was inspired to write from time that he and his partner David spent in Rome during Covid, where they pretty much had Rome all to themselves. It is a classic love story with a contemporary twist. It’s got amazing architecture and Roman history in it, but at its heart it’s a love story. I love it for a lot of reasons; one is the evolution of the two characters — how they get to know not only each other, but themselves. Yes. An American boy meets an Italian boy in Italy in the 1980s. They’re in their late teens. It’s beautifully done. It’s not explicit or graphic in a sexual way. It’s very romantic. It’s just perfect."