The Runner

From the acclaimed author of The End of Mr. Y comes a blend of dark humor, international crime, and romance in this literary thriller about a man fleeing a decades-old contract on his life—and the woman who may change everything.

He’s running for his life. And he’s running out of time. Jay has been hunted since he was twenty years old. A contract on his life has been traded like a commodity, rising and falling with Bitcoin for decades. On the run once again with no passport and airmiles as his only currency, Jay will have to choose between love and survival, and run for his life. While staying at an all-inclusive resort, surviving off of the points he accrued in a previous, more successful life, Jay meets Ellie, a beguiling fellow runner who may even be faster than he is, and is harboring secrets of her own. When an assassin appears poolside, Jay is on the run again, but this time with Ellie, as they find themselves on a catamaran helmed by a sinister and reckless crew. The Runner is about high-finance, con artists, the Book of Jonah, ultramarathons, and how falling in love can change everything. Darkly funny, sexy, and exciting, Scarlett Thomas—author of the “work of gonzo genius” (The New York Times), The Sleepwalkers—transports readers from the sun-drenched roads of Cyprus to the rain slicked streets of Kent in this high-concept literary thriller.

© 2026 Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook): 9781668115794

Release date

Audiobook: 10 November 2026