The Long Run Hardcover - 2006

Media reviews

“In his debut novel, longtime Canadian English teacher Furey spins bleak material into a moving and uplifting story. . . . Inspirational without being mawkish, Furey's debut is a shoo-in for book clubs.”—Publishers Weekly

“[A] winning first novel . . . Furey encapsulates the life-affirming resilience of youth.”—Booklist starred review

“The Long Run is a ghastly wonderful journey through a pious hell run by lunatics, an antic dance of grim humor, genuine pathos, and final redeeming joy.”—The Globe & Mail

 “Everyone who has read The Long Run, Leo Furey’s brilliant first novel, will agree it is a deeply moving book. It made me laugh and cry, stoked anger and hatred I didn’t even know I possessed, and made me sad and melancholic. In the end, it left me cheering. Only a few books have ever inspired me to cheer.”—The Edmonton Journal

“Funny, sad, forgiving, and redemptive, The Long Run wonderfully and tenderly evokes a time and place and shows us boys fighting for survival and happiness in the face of relentless and often heartless opposition. The reader fights and wins with them.”—Wayne Johnston, author of The Navigator of New York and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

“What got me is how laugh-out-loud funny this book is. Yet the whole is suffused with an aura of incredible sadness. It is universal in its message that adversity and systematic repression can reveal the infinite resourcefulness and indomitability of people, especially young people. Leo Furey has turned bitter experience into a work of art.”—Robert MacNeil, author of Wordstruck and Burden of Desire “This is a novel about the past—a past that is presented in such detail that it becomes the present, and, in its finality, knows no boundaries. It is a story of everlasting friendships forged in youth and pain.”—Alistair MacLeod, author of No Great Mischief “Furey’s tragicomic tale of orphanage life in St. John’s during the sixties will win your heart and break it by turns.  The Long Run is a vivid account of brutality, laughter, the unwavering bravery of childhood, and a hard resilience—it cannot fail to move its readers.”—Lisa Moore, author of Open and Alligator