The Book Report #99
Episode #98
The Book Club Edition #5
I joined a book club, and this was the book chosen in January 2026.
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot
The Book
Canongate Books Ltd first published this book in 2016. Canongate Books is based in Edinburgh.
My copy of this book is a digital version. My eBook copy has 237 pages, according to my Kindle app, including some acknowledgements and some advertising for other materials.
What Did I Think?
This book is a memoir of surviving life as an alcoholic.
Based on Mrs Liptrot’s own experience, we travel through the world of the character known as Rona.
With her father being in and out of psychiatric hospitals, due to a mental illness, at the literal beginning of Rona’s life. Her mother, who had to grin and bear it for so many years. Rona wondered what life would be like elsewhere from the limiting place she lived.
Travelling
It wasn’t until she left her home on the Orkney Islands that her journey of discovery found its way into several bottles of booze. It took a long time to hit rock bottom and realise that she had to sort herself out and finally face herself in the mirror.
After several years of going back and forth to the Orkney Islands, Rona decided to stay and learn about the archipelago areas of her youth and explore the furthest reaches of the islands.
I was speaking with a colleague about this book, and he came up with the best way to describe it: A tourist’s guide to the Orkney Islands.
Ronan goes to great lengths to describe everything she experiences over the many years of her recovery, and I noticed as well: her search for a home.
I can understand this, as I feel the same way, as I assume many others do. But this is where the story changes.
The more she carries on with her adventures, the more we lose the character. I literally forgot the main character’s name, and to write this blog, I had to search online to find it out.
But this is where I began to be less bored of the story and learn some new things about places I had never heard of before.
I had heard of the Orkney Islands. But I didn’t know about the history or the goings-on in the smallest and further north islands: the wildlife and the general life of the people who live there. The weather is a character of its own, which changes rapidly when it feels like it.
Truth
I am not going to lie and say this story is the best book I have ever read. Because it certainly isn’t, but it isn’t the worst book either.
This book wasn’t for me, and I couldn’t connect with the author’s journey. Her adventures were real, and her addiction is real. But I couldn’t connect with her. I was more connected to the islands.
It is pretty much assumed that there is a connection between her dad’s mental health and her disorder. But she continues to try to have a healthy relationship with her family even after they split up. Even with all her struggles, her family seem to be close-knit even though they all live apart from each other. They are all there for Rona and willing to help her at her worst. The book follows the first two years of her struggles and learning to accept herself and new ways to use her addiction in the new adventures she places herself in.
Would I Recommend?
Would you like to learn from a person’s own perspective on the adventures you could have by travelling around a group of islands? How about reading about the struggles of someone dealing with their journey with alcoholism? This book may help you if you are on that journey yourself. I would recommend this book to you.
Sadly, it is not something I would recommend for myself.
But don’t let me stop you. Please give this book a go.
Would you like to purchase your very own copy?
You could try these online stores: Amazon UK/USA and Waterstones. AbeBooks UK/USA, Barnes & Noble, or eBay UK/USA.
Alternatively, you could try your local bookshop or even your local library.
