The Burn Journals: A Memoir - Paperback
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In 1991, fourteen-year-old Brent Runyon came home from school, doused his bathrobe in gasoline, put it on, and lit a match. He suffered third-degree burns over 85% of his body and spent the next year recovering in hospitals and rehab facilities. During that year of physical recovery, Runyon began to question what he'd done, undertaking the complicated journey from near-death back to high school, and from suicide back to the emotional mainstream of life.
The Burn Journals: A Memoir - Paperback
$18.00
Sale price
$18.00
Regular price
by Brent Runyon (Author)
Fans of Thirteen Reasons Why, Running with Scissors, and Girl, Interrupted will be entranced by this remarkable true story of teenage despair and recovery.
"[The Burn Journals] describes a particular kind of youthful male desolation better than it has ever been described before, by anyone." --Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday DemonIn 1991, fourteen-year-old Brent Runyon came home from school, doused his bathrobe in gasoline, put it on, and lit a match. He suffered third-degree burns over 85% of his body and spent the next year recovering in hospitals and rehab facilities. During that year of physical recovery, Runyon began to question what he'd done, undertaking the complicated journey from near-death back to high school, and from suicide back to the emotional mainstream of life.
Front Jacket
BRENT RUNYON WAS 14 years old when he set himself on fire.
This is a true story.
In "The Burn Journals, Runyon describes that devastating suicide attempt and his recovery over the following year. He takes us into the Burn Unit in a children's hospital and through painful burn care and skin-grafting procedures. Then to a rehabilitation hospital, for intensive physical, occupational, and psychological therapy. And then finally back home, to the frightening prospect of entering high school.
But more importantly, Runyon takes us into his own mind. He shares his thoughts and hopes and fears with such unflinching honesty that we understand--with a terrible clarity--what it means to want to kill yourself and how it feels to struggle back toward normality.
Intense, exposed, insightful, "The Burn Journals is a deeply personal story with universal reach. It is impossible to look away. Impossible to remain unmoved.
This truly riveting memoir is a spectacular debut for a talented new writer.
"From the Hardcover edition.
Author Biography
BRENT RUNYON is a writer and regular contributor to public radio programs, including This American Life, where portions of his award-winning memoir, The Burn Journals, first aired. Booklist praised The Burn Journals as "the defining book of a new genre, one that gazes unflinchingly at boys on the emotional edge." In his novels Maybe and Surface Tension, he retains that raw honesty. Mr. Runyon lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Number of Pages: 336
Dimensions: 0.72 x 8 x 5.3 IN
Publication Date: October 11, 2005
Accelerated Reader:
Quiz Name: Burn Journals
Interest Level: Upper Grades, 9-12
Reading Level: 3.8
Point Value: 12