Run Hide Repeat - Pauline Dakin

Run Hide Repeat: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by Pauline Dakin marked for absolutely fascinating reading.

Pauline Dakin is a Canadian, award winning journalist (radio, television and print), producer, and is currently a journalism professor. Run Hide Repeat is her first book. It's a memoir - and it's one you won't be able to put down. Truth is truly stranger than fiction.

"When all had been revealed, I wished it to be unsaid. As unsatisfying as my previous ignorance had been, it was better than this story, and easier to live with than my struggle to weigh the truth against the possibility that...that what?"

The book's opening chapters introduce us to twenty three year old Dakin. Her mother Ruth and Stan, a family friend have decided that Pauline can finally be told the truth. Why they moved from one side of the country to the other, not once but twice, following Stan and his wife. Why they often left at the drop of a hat, leaving without saying goodbye to neighbours and friends. Why they often missed school. Why they were cautioned to never tell anyone the details of their lives. 

The answer? The Mafia was after Ruth and her children. The running, the precautions, the moves and the secrets were to keep them safe.

Dakin moves the telling of her story from past to present. The reader has the knowledge of the adult Dakin, but it only makes the childhood memories all the more perplexing. And somewhat ridiculous. There's no way this could be true - could it?

Pictures of Ruth, Stan, Dakin and her brother and father enhance the memoir and give a human face to this unbelievably true story. Halfway through the book (and this was in one sitting), there was still no answer to the 'why?' Curiosity had me picking the book up every spare moment until I finally reached the final pages.

The telling of Run Hide Repeat is a complex and deeply personal personal story. Telling your own story to the world is brave. "An unforgettable family tale of deception and betrayal, love and forgiveness" is an apt description from the publisher. Read an excerpt of Run Hide Repeat.