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Run Towards the Danger
- Confrontations with a Body of Memory
- Narrated by: Sarah Polley
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
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Run Towards the Danger
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Publisher's Summary
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE 2022 TORONTO BOOK AWARDS * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE * NOMINATED FOR THE 2023 HERITAGE TORONTO AWARDS * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * Named a Most-Anticipated Book of 2022 by Entertainment Weekly, Lit Hub, and AV Club
“A visceral and incisive collection of six propulsive personal essays.” —Vanity Fair
“[A] roving, psychologically probing memoir in essays . . . On the page, Polley turns out to be as brave, funny, and unself-serious as she is on the screen.” —The New Yorker
From the Academy Award-nominated director of Women Talking, Run Towards the Danger explores memory and the dialogue between her past and her present.
These are the most dangerous stories of my life. The ones I have avoided, the ones I haven’t told, the ones that have kept me awake on countless nights. As these stories found echoes in my adult life, and then went another, better way than they did in childhood, they became lighter and easier to carry.
Sarah Polley’s work as an actor, screenwriter, and director is celebrated for its honesty, complexity, and deep humanity. She brings all of those qualities along with her exquisite storytelling chops to these six essays. Each one captures a piece of Polley’s life as she remembers it, while at the same time examining the fallibility of memory, the mutability of reality in the mind, and the possibility of experiencing the past anew, as the person you are now but were not then. As Polley writes, the past and present are in a “reciprocal pressure dance.”
Polley contemplates stories from her own life ranging from stage fright to high risk childbirth to endangerment and more. After struggling with the aftermath of a concussion, Polley met a specialist who gave her wholly new advice: to recover from a traumatic injury, she had to retrain her mind to strength by charging towards the very activities that triggered her symptoms. With riveting clarity, she shows the power of applying that same advice to other areas of her life in order to find a path forward, a way through. Rather than live in a protective crouch, she had to run towards the danger.
In this extraordinary book, Sarah Polley explores what it is to live in one’s body, in a constant state of becoming, learning, and changing.
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What the critics say
2023, Heritage Toronto Award: Nominated
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2022, PrizeName: Toronto Book Awar: Winner
“Sarah Polley understands that questions of conscience are inseparable from the terrors and tenderness of the body, and that courage - moral or physical - is not fearlessness but our relationship to fear. How we confront pain, how we determine what is safe, how we comprehend the depth and limits of our responsibility to others and to ourselves - these are exacting, keening questions. This is a powerful and moving book, both in its seeking and its wisdom.” (Anne Michaels, Giller-shortlisted author of Fugitive Pieces and All We Saw)
“In Run Towards the Danger, Sarah Polley does just that. She tells us the truth, even when it feels razor sharp - even when it feels dangerous. She rips away at painful past experiences that she’s never shared before, and in this way emboldens us to sharpen our gaze on the shadowed moments in our own past, to understand their provenance and to bring meaning to them. She shows us how, by doing this, we can begin to move towards that specific peace of mind - you might even call it joy - that comes with confronting our demons and knowing ourselves. These brilliant essays (and Sarah Polley, with her melioristic heart and empathic eye) urge us, by example, towards the examined life, the life worth living, and give us a jolt of energy to muster the courage and compassion needed to live it.” (Miriam Toews, best-selling author of Women Talking and All My Puny Sorrows)
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What listeners say about Run Towards the Danger
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- KM
- 2023-04-08
This book is incredible, emotional, moving and inspiring. I would highly recommend it!!
Sarah is an incredible storyteller. Each short story had an amazing theme and lesson throughout it. The text is so raw and honest and beautiful.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- David kift
- 2022-04-25
Great narrator
loved the narrator and an interesting perspective .
I've never thought of what a child actor or actors may have endured.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Heather Winkelman
- 2022-12-11
An engaging & illuminating story.
Sarah Polley's brave and engaging story will help light the way for others who suffer in invisible ways. She has performed an invaluable service & I am profoundly grateful for her story.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dawn Berney
- 2023-03-20
Insight into oneself, film world and society is rare.
Sarah Polley is a supernova. Incredibly wise, generous, and talented. Absolutely fabulous book and narration.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anna MacKay-Smith
- 2023-03-14
Amazing
Loved this book. Insightful and provocative. Polley is a National Treasure as an artist and thinker.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2023-11-21
Balancing Fragility with Grit
I could deeply relate to your first book on so many levels. I am recovering from a Sept 5/23 severe concussion, and it was heartening to know my instinct since day 3 to push my limits each day balanced with “listening to my body” might just be contributing to my speedy recovery. In fact, I realize that despite my gentle nature, I have been “running towards the danger” my whole life, as have you Sarah. Thank you for showing us the way…please keep writing!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Caitlind
- 2022-04-02
an important read for folks working in film/TV
Sarah Polley crafted a surprising, insightful, and compulsive read. Very much a coming-of-age narrative, wrapped inside the self-examination of adulthood. An important piece to read for folks working in the film and television industry. Polley documents abuse on set and the life-altering impacts of being a child actor... but you don't need to know her career to find this read compelling. This book should attract readers interested in complex storytelling, nuanced perspectives, and a poetic femme energy - honed by years of cultural work and refined by psychoanalysis. At times, her stories were hard to listen to - but as the narrator, Polley guides you through with feeling and gentleness. Take a listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kate R.
- 2022-03-05
Devastatingly honest
This book took me on an unexpected journey and I feel wiser for having listened to it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sarah Painter
- 2022-10-25
Outstanding. Personal. Beautiful. Powerful.
This book is an extraordinary masterpiece or personal reflection, soul searching, and courageous contemplation. Masterfully assembled into a connected work of art. I am devastated that it’s over. A must-listen❤️
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sydney Gilchrist
- 2023-04-17
Brilliant in so many ways
Beautiful, astonishing book, narrated absolutely gorgeously by the author. Had me in tears more than once. Recommended to all.
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