Stubborn high school senior Bullet Tillerman equates freedom from home and school with cross-country running until the distant civil rights movement and Vietnam War begin to shape his days and his destiny. Readers who met Bullet's relatives in HOMECOMING (1981), DICEY'S SONG (1982) and A SOLITARY BLUE (1983) may be surprised by the harsh, tragic tone and realistic elements in this novel set a generation earlier. As in the novels above, THE RUNNER also bears Voigt's superb characterizations and symbolic uses of names, events and writing styles. (Age 14 and older)