The Outrun by Amy Liptrot

When Amy Liptrot returns to Orkney after more than a decade away, she is drawn back to the Outrun on the sheep farm where she grew up. Approaching the land that was once home, memories of her childhood merge with the recent events that have set her on this journey.

Amy was shaped by the cycle of the seasons, birth and death on the farm, and her father's mental illness, which were as much a part of her childhood as the wild, carefree existence on Orkney. But as she grew up, she longed to leave this remote life.

She moved to London and found herself in a hedonistic cycle. Unable to control her drinking, alcohol gradually took over. Now thirty, she finds herself washed up back home on Orkney, standing unstable at the cliff edge, trying to come to terms with what happened to her in London.

Spending early mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, the days tracking Orkney's wildlife - puffins nesting on sea stacks, arctic terns swooping close enough to feel their wings - and nights searching the sky for the Merry Dancers, Amy slowly makes the journey towards recovery from addiction.

The Outrun is a beautiful, inspiring book about living on the edge, about the pull between island and city, and about the ability of the sea, the land, the wind and the moon to restore life and renew hope.

A lyrical, brave memoir. It's Liptrot's aptitude for marrying her inner-space with wild outer-spaces that makes her such a compelling writer . . . I enjoyed this book enormously - WILL SELF, Guardian

The sheer sensuality of Liptrot's prose and her steely resolve immediately put her right up there with the best of the best. Liptrot is an Orcadian warrior with the breeze in her blood and poetry in her fingers, and The Outrun may even be a future classic. Wherever she journeys next, you will want to go with her - New Statesman

An uncompromising account of addiction and recovery played out against the blasted fields of Orkney. Liptrot's writing is strong and sure. The Outrun is a bright addition to the exploding genre of writing about place and our place in the natural world - Observer

Remarkable . . . a meditative interior journey which Liptrot elevates to an art - Spectator

An unflinching examination of trauma, addiction and the restorative power of the natural world . . . It is a wild, wind-lashed book, and you come away from reading with the taste of salt spray on your lips - Evie Wyld, New York Times

Brilliant . . . one of the most scabrously honest, sassy and moving books about addiction and recovery that I have read - Scotsman

An astonishingly beautiful book. Amy makes most nature writing seem flat and pedestrian. Her account of her addiction and recovery is electric, sexy, immediate and raw, leaving the reader reeling in her wake . . . This is a luminous, life-affirming book, and I have no doubt that I'll be pressing it into people's hands for years to come - OLIVIA LAING

There is a great deal of frank, flinch-making writing in this book, but it is always balanced by a sublimity and graciousness that is rare. This is a bold-hearted and brave-minded book. It is both terribly sad and awfully affecting. I look forward to its presence on some prize lists - Scotland on Sunday

Clean, clear and impressive . . . a sensuous book, full of summer nights and winter water. Liptrot swims, walks, lives alone on uninhabited islands and observes. And from that comes a portrait of the natural world she is absorbed into - Herald